Thaler McCormick
Chief Executive Officer, ForKids
CEO, Thaler McCormick, joined ForKids in 1996 initially as Services Director prior to her promotion to Chief Executive in 2001. When Thaler joined ForKids, it was just beginning to grow beyond the boundaries of Haven House, its 8-unit emergency shelter. During her tenure as Services Director, she built the organization’s supportive housing programs and developed ForKids’ extensive children’s services programming and clinical services. As Chief Executive she has actively pursued and implemented a broad network of partnerships with the public sector, service organizations and other non-profits that have resulted in a tenfold increase in ForKids’ service capacity. Today ForKids assists more than 200 families each day throughout Hampton Roads.
ForKids’ innovative, result-driven programs for homeless families have garnered numerous awards including the 2008 Special Project Award from the Hampton Roads Housing Consortium for the redevelopment of W. 38th Street, the 2008 Campbell and Company Award for Excellence in Fundraising from the Association of Fundraising Professionals International, the 2006 Bank of America Neighborhood Builders Award, the 2005 Virginia Housing Award for Best Housing Program and the 2004 United Way Agency of the Year.
During her tenure with ForKids, Thaler has secured millions in federal government grants while successfully reducing ForKids’ dependence on government funding. Since 2001 she has increased community contributions from less than $100,000 to over $1.6 million in FY2009. Her success in implementing results-driven practices while bringing ForKids onto a firm financial footing earned her the 2009 Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership Prize from the Virginia Beach Foundation and the “Women In Business Achievement Award” from INSIDE Business magazine in 2005.
Thaler’s work to end homelessness has taken her to Washington D.C. to participate in a White House Roundtable discussion on national solutions for family homelessness and to Moscow to provide training in case management best practices for the AIDS Foundation East-West. She was a member of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission to End Homelessness that created the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Norfolk. Thaler is currently active in the Western Tidewater Continuum of Care and on numerous boards and advisory councils.
Prior to her work with ForKids, she worked as a Senior Consultant for Arthur Andersen in Washington, D.C. and wrote on housing and development issues for the Urban Land Institute. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Business from Miami University and a Masters Degree in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University Of Virginia School Of Architecture.
