Name: Kris Meininger  
​Hometown: Collingswood, NJ 
Company: EDSI  
Position: Career Coach Coordinator 
Length of time you have been with your company: 7 years.  
Briefly describe your journey, noting both personal milestones and obstacles you may have faced along the way. I began working with EDSI in 2016 as a Job Developer, acting as a liaison between folks seeking employment and job opportunities in the Philadelphia area. I worked in recruitment for a year but found myself most energized by working with people 1-1 to help achieve their goals. That prompted me to pursue a Case Manager position in the same Philadelphia office, where I could support people to remediate barriers and achieve milestones to gain employment. In early 2020, I transferred to EDSI Delco office as a Case Manager for the EARN (Employment, Advancement and Retention Network) Program. In 2021, a took a year hiatus in Tennessee supporting EDSI’s WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act) program in Nashville. It was a wonderful experience! However, I could not wait to return to the team at the Delco office to continue the wonderful work of supporting folks in their goals. Since returning to Delaware County in 2022,   I have been able to support our EARN and Recovery programs; continuing the work that energizes me the most! 

Name: Allison McGill
Hometown: Broomall, PA
Company: Values Into Action PA & Values Into Action NJ
Position: Director of Culture & Talent
Length of time you have been with you company: 8 ½ years
Briefly describe your journey, noting both personal milestones and obstacles you may have faced along the way. I was raised in rural Indiana, and I always knew I wanted to experience life outside of the small Midwest town I grew up in. I moved to SE PA for college and stayed for grad school. In my first professional roles I worked directly with children with disabilities or mental health diagnoses. Eventually, I was promoted to a supervisory role that allowed for me to do hiring for the programs I was supervising. And something just clicked, I enjoyed meeting new people and finding the right fit for the positions we had opened. It lead me to reevaluate what I wanted to do and I decided I wanted to gain more experience in the human resource side of human services. I took a leap and applied for an entry level HR position with my current organization and they took the leap with me! Since then, I’ve gotten the opportunity to learn and grow and am now at a director level, leading our Culture & Talent team. 

Name: Theresa Cicalese
Hometown: Swarthmore (Ridley Township)
Company: AmeriHealth Caritas
Position: Manager, Clinical Training Team
Length of time you have been with you company: 14 years​
​Briefly describe your journey, noting both personal milestones and obstacles you may have faced along the way: I have always felt my calling was to help people in need, and I have been lucky to be able to do that throughout my career as an RN, whether working in the hospital, primary care setting, or working for AmeriHealth Caritas. I have been with AmeriHealth Caritas since 2009, first working as a Case Manager for medically fragile children and more recently as a Manager for one of the new hire training teams. I have always been amazed at how much I learned about the "business" of Healthcare and Medicaid Managed Care. I have never gone a day in my work where I have not learned something new! I transitioned from Case Management to training new hires, and realized that I loved getting to know people and tapping into their strengths to help them grow personally and professionally. I have also learned to be truly thankful for every day, because you never know what can happen, and you especially never know what someone else is going through. I don't think I have had obstacles so much as I have had challenges or learning opportunities. The job is extremely busy, but I don't like to be bored, so it suits me!