Board of Child Care Announces Retirement of Ellicott City Resident Thomas L. Curcio

Jan Hayden, chair of the board of directors of Board of Child Care (BCC), announced today that Thomas L. Curcio will retire as president and CEO, effective July 2014.

Mr. Curcio started his career in the field of child welfare more than 45 years ago. In 1993, he took over as executive director (later becoming president and CEO) of the Board of Child Care and has since led BCC through remarkable growth. When Mr. Curcio assumed his leadership post, BCC had an annual budget of just $3 million and served 50 youth at one campus. Today the organization now spans two states, multiple locations and serves more than 2,000 youth and families annually.

Under Mr. Curcio's leadership, BCC has seen the renovation of the Baltimore campus and completion of campuses in Falling Waters, W.Va., and in Denton plus the development of an early childhood education center in Washington, D.C., and an outpatient mental health clinic in Pasadena.

Ms. Hayden credits Mr. Curcio for both his steadfast commitment to children and for the program's extraordinary expansion. "We have been blessed to have such a visionary leader over the past 21 years. Tom's commitment to children and youth is beyond extraordinary," Ms. Hayden said. "He exemplifies what is best in all of us with his undying quest to seek solutions for troubled children and youth that will have a positive effect on their lives."

During his leadership, the Board of Child Care has received several honors including Organization of the Year Award and Best Practice Award for Innovative Programming from the United Methodist Association. In 2009 Mr. Curcio was named Administrator of the Year by the same association. A year prior, he received the Samuel Gerson Nordlinger Child Welfare Leadership Award from the Alliance for Children and Families. Recently he was recognized by Dream 4 It Inc. for his work with special needs youth.

"It has been an honor to be a part of this healing ministry and be able to serve the needs of our youth for over 25 years," said Mr. Curcio. "I am proud of the success we have been able to achieve as an organization and consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to work with so many skilled clinicians, dedicated caregivers and committed staff."

An Ellicott City resident, Mr. Curcio graduated from Gannon University in 1967 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. He holds both a master's in criminal justice from Long Island University and a master's in social work from Hunter College, School of Social Work.

Mr Curcio, a 2004 graduate of Leadership Maryland, is active in the community. He is a member of the Provincial Council for the State of Maryland and a board member at the Cook Kids Campaign Foundation. Over the years he has served on the board of directors of the Alliance for Children and Families and on the boards of both the Maryland Association for Youth and Families and the Domestic Violence Center of Howard County. Additionally, Mr. Curcio is president of the board of the United Methodist Association's Children, Youth and Family Services.

The Board of Child Care's board of directors has formed a search committee that is underway with its national search for the next president and CEO.

Longtime BCC board member and leader of the Peninsula-Delaware Conference of the UMC, Bishop Peggy A. Johnson, said, "I am grateful to Mr. Curcio for his exemplary service to the Board of Child Care and the community at large. He has expanded BCC into new programs and set a new standard for service and outreach for youth throughout the region."

BCC has a long history of serving children and families in the community as an outreach ministry within the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Conferences of the United Methodist Church (UMC). The agency began as three orphanages that opened in the late 19th and 20th centuries and then merged in 1960 to become the Board of Child Care.

BCC's programs include residential care, treatment foster care, early childhood education, therapeutic counseling, adoption information and referral, and a special education school. The agency is headquartered in Baltimore but also operates facilities in West Virginia, the Eastern Shore of Maryland and D.C. Its community-based group homes are located throughout the state of Maryland and one additional location in Martinsburg, W.Va.

BCC's vision is to be a community of hope: providing an opportunity to heal and a safe and caring environment for children, youth and families. To learn more, visit www.boardofchildcare.org.