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tual and developmental disabilities, such as autism and Down syndrome, who are looking to expand their social, vocational, and music skills in a music-infused environment.
“Our uniqueness comes from how we integrate music, dance, and other art forms into our programs so that individuals who are musically talented or art- minded can use that to scaffold to other skills, creat- ing better opportunities for independence and devel- oping their life skills such as money management, cooking, and more,” she explained.
Students at the school are provided with opportu- nities to perform locally, individually, and as part of groups, Theroux noted, and in settings ranging from local schools to Fenway Park, where students have sung the national anthem.
“It gives individuals who otherwise would not have had that opportunity the chance for their ability to be heard, not necessarily their disability,” she went on. “When you hear one of our performers playing, you hear their music; you don’t see their disability — and that’s the mission behind all that we have done.”
Theroux’s role there brings her passion for manag- ing nonprofits and her passion for the arts together in a role she finds both challenging and, in many ways, invigorating.
“This place really blended my nonprofit-manage- ment skillset with my dance background,” she said, adding that, during her tenure, she has been able to put the agency on firmer financial ground while expanding its footprint and growing its client base.
As she leads the organization, Theroux contin- ues to lean on those skills she honed through dance — and an impressive track record of managing non-
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“When you hear one of our performers playing, you hear their music; you don’t see their disability — and that’s the mission behind all that we have done.”
profits; after spearheading a merger between Child & Family Services and the Center for Human Develop- ment, she remained with CHD, serving as vice presi- dent of its clinical division.
At Berkshire Hills, she has acted as a change agent for the nonprofit, stabilizing all facets of the operation, creating an operational budget surplus, doubling the operating budget over a two-year period, expanding contracts with the Department of Developmental Ser- vices, and exceeding set goals for a capital campaign.
While building on her impressive résumé of work leading nonprofits, Theroux has also built upon a strong track record of service to the community. Most notably, she currently chairs the board of trustees for Mercy Medical Center, and is also a regional board member for Trinity Health Of New England.
But her involvement in the community takes many forms, especially in South Hadley, where she lives and works. She has been a board member for the South Hadley/Granby Chamber of Commerce for nearly
a decade now, and served as president of the board from 2018 to 2022. Within the community, she is a member of the Master Plan Implementation Commit- tee and the Redevelopment Authority, and is also a
“The number of people who are interested in law school, nationwide, are down in comparison to those pandemic years. But if you compare them to 2019, they’re level, and we’re even a few points ahead when it comes to interest at Western New England.”
pandemic years,” she noted. “But if you compare them to 2019, they’re level, and we’re even a few points ahead when it comes to interest at Western New England.”
As for who is going to law school these days, she said most are coming right from an undergraduate institution, although some are finding their way there after a few — or, in some cases, more than a few — years of work in various fields.
That’s the case at Western New England, she said, which has a robust part-time program that is attrac- tive to working professionals that tend to be some- what older than the mean for incoming law-school students — the mid-20s.
Meanwhile, there is, as noted earlier, growing interest in the skillsets provided by a law-school edu- cation, she said, adding that such training, through those master’s degree programs, is contributing to
town meeting member.
Other work within the region includes a decade
of service to MicroTek Inc., a Chicopee-based manu- facturer of custom cable and wire configurations that maintains a focus on employing people with disabili- ties and supporting these individuals. Theroux has served on its board of directors since 2014, currently as its vice president. Previously, she has been involved with the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts and the Human Service Forum.
At Mercy, Theroux has led the board during a time of extreme challenge — the pandemic tested the hos- pital and its staff in every way imaginable.
“It was awe-striking in a lot of ways,” she said, “starting with your admiration for the healthcare workers and the day-to-day challenges that they were facing, on all levels — those on the front lines, the administrators trying to make sure everyone was safe, everyone throughout the entire system.
“And then, you’re dealing with the reality of a pandem- ic and patients who were fighting in the ICUs and the COVID units,” she went on. “You were seeing both, while trying to manage and make sure that you could get as many resources into place as possible to sup- port both ends of that paradigm.”
Her work to help lead the Mercy system through those dark and challenging times is just one example of how Theroux has continued to grow as a manager and a leader since she was first named a 40 Under Forty honoree, and why she is a finalist for the AAA Award. BW
—George O’Brien
the professional development of those in many fields, while also opening doors career-wise.
“Take, for example, someone in the healthcare insurance industry — a field that’s adjacent to the law, if you will, but that person wouldn’t need a full law degree,” Harris noted. “Another example would be a social worker, such as those involved in the criminal- justice system; they don’t need to be a lawyer, but they do need to have legal knowledge in order to move up the ladder in their career or just be better practitio- ners for their clients.
“Those types of master’s degrees are not currently part of the programs at Western New England, but it’s something that I would like to explore,” she went on. “We’ve had great success with them here at Loyola; in fact, we offer them in an online format to make them more accessible to the working professional.”
Bottom Line
Creating such programs will require planning and resources, Harris said, adding that this will be one of many priorities she will address upon arriving later this summer.
Overall, she intends to do a needs assessment for the region, determine how the region’s only law school might address those needs, and then create a new business plan moving forward.
Her broad intention is to build on an already impressive record of success and set the bar — that’s an industry term — even higher. BW
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WNE
married in Williamstown. Beyond that, it’s an opportu- nity to take her career, and her ongoing work in expe- riential learning, in an intriguing new direction.
“Western New England has a laser focus on expe- riential learning opportunities that are carried out through the clinics that are internal to the law, but also the amount of community engagement — sending the law students out into the legal community, mostly in Springfield, to practice under the supervision of other practicing attorneys — and there’s an academic component as well, so the students are receiving aca- demic credits.
“But they’re also providing a key service to the community because, as in all communities, there’s high demand and unmet legal needs among people who are unable to afford legal representation in the private market,” she went on, adding that it will be her goal and mission to continue and build on these initiatives.
Returning to the subject of enrollment, Harris said things have certainly “settled” since the sharp declines witnessed a decade or so ago, a phenom- enon that, coupled with the retirement of many Baby Boomer lawyers, created severe challenges for firms looking to hire, challenges that persist today on many levels.
There was that surge that accompanied the pan- demic, she noted, but recent data shows numbers returning to where they were in those years before COVID arrived.
“The number of people who are interested in law school, nationwide, are down in comparison to those
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