Leadership at ARISE, a nonprofit Independent Living Center run by and for people with disabilities, is in transition as executive director Tom McKeown prepares to retire after 14 years at the helm.
His successor is being promoted from within. Tania Anderson, who began as a board member in 1999, is ARISE’s current chief operating officer. She is also the parent of a child with disabilities and an attorney by trade.
McKeown says the timing is right for Anderson to start leading.
“How services will be paid for in the future will be more and more through contracting with managed care companies and less and less with having contracts with states agencies,” McKeown said. “Tania’s legal background as well as her passion for what we do is going to position us so well.”
Under McKeown’s tenure, ARISE has quadrupled in size. Today it is an $18 million organization with 700 employees in five different counties. McKeown credits the success of this expansion to his colleagues’ creativity and understanding of ARISE’s core principles.
“Much of the growth is due to our willingness to provide needed services without losing our fundamental advocacy edge,” McKeown said.
Anderson agreed that ARISE’s approach to independent living has been key to the company’s progress.
“We’ve always been a person-centered place where services are delivered in the community at the direction of the people, meeting their needs where they are,” Anderson said. “The marketplace is also going that direction, so we were in the right place at the right time.”
However, that doesn’t mean ARISE’s work is done, Anderson said.
“The growth has been strategic and measured and deliberate,” Anderson said. “The needs have also grown in our community. There’s increased need for advocacy, for access.”
Anderson will take over April first.
