When Therese Tomaiko was in her thirties, she went back to school to become a lawyer, and picked up overnight shifts at a group home so that she could study at night while earning an income. “While I was there, I totally fell in love with the population, and I just couldn’t NOT work with them,” she says. “I decided I was going to stay in the field of developmental disabilities.”
Over the next 30 or so years, Therese worked her way up through the ranks at different agencies, from the overnight shift to manager to coordinator to supervisor to regional director. “I worked in every part of the field,” she says. After working as a support coordinator, she decided to return to an agency in 2019, and that’s when she landed at The Arc of Essex County as an Assistant Director of Residential Services. In 2024, she shifted roles to become Assistant Director of Training Operations and Professional Development, which is the position she holds today.
She says her time in direct support was her favorite part of her career, and she still loves every opportunity to visit Arc programs. But she also loves developing people through her current role in training. “If I can get one or two people who walk through the door to decide to make this their career, then I feel like I really did something,” she says. And drawing from her wide-ranging experience, Therese can give real-life examples of how the lessons on the screen play out in day-to-day scenarios. “I think of it more like, I’m not the teacher, I’m really presenting my experience to you, and we’re all learning from each other.”
Therese has been involved in expanding The Arc’s training program to provide more professional development opportunities for managers, and helping ensure the organization is not just meeting requirements but also being proactive when it comes to implementing best practices in training. “It’s important that we’re hiring and promoting from within,” she says. “I always tell the people I’m training that there’s a reason they’re here; they obviously have a calling, that they want to do something with their lives to help people. It’s really something special.”
She particularly loves working at The Arc and credits the leadership. “I love their vision, their dedication and commitment to something bigger than themselves,” she says. “Since 2019, I have seen the progress The Arc of Essex has made. Each department is solid in their commitment, and we all work together as a team.”
At times through the years, Therese’s professional life has woven with her personal life, as she has been the Guardian of a person with disabilities, and was once asked to give the eulogy for a resident she had cared for. She says when she looks back at her career journey and the twists and turns it has taken, she has no regrets. “I wouldn’t have changed anything,” she says. “As I tell people I’m training: you’re part of a bigger picture, helping and supporting other people on their journey in life. You’re on your journey, and they’re on theirs, and we’re here to support each other.”