Malloy picks Madison resident as Conn. comissioner

By Register Staff
HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has named Terrence W. Macy of Madison to serve as commissioner of the Department of Developmental Services.
Macy has been executive director of SARAH Tuxis Residential & Community Resources since 1990.
In making the announcement, Malloy said: “As everyone knows, I spend a great deal of time talking about our citizens with developmental and intellectual disabilities, the community providers who serve them, and the need for state government to be a better partner to both.
“This is an agency that many people don’t know much about. I’m hoping that will change. Caring for some of the neediest in our society is a moral obligation government has, and should have.”
Malloy often talks of the teachers and family members who helped him over the years to deal with his dyslexia.
At SARAH Tuxis Residential & Community Resources, Macy has led efforts to provide support to people with disabilities along the central Shoreline, focusing on direct care and creating environments where individuals with disabilities thrive, the prepared announcement said.
He was responsible for administering a staff that grew from 42 to 300 and has since become one of the largest providers of individual supports of any state Department of Development Services-funded agency.
Macy is known for developing a culture of collaborating with community partners to expand creative support systems, including the development of innovative and individualized supports for seniors, the statement said.
“Understanding the fiscal reality both the state and country face, I’m hopeful that my experiences in partnering with community private and public providers in a quest to expand creative support systems while generating efficiencies will allow these programs to be maintained in an efficient and cost-effective manner,” Macy said.
Macy previously worked seven years at DATAHR Rehabilitation Institute (Ability Beyond Disability) as director of vocational services and director of residential services, developing training programs, training staff in new work skills development programs, and increasing services for people with autism and traumatically brain injured adults.
Prior to that, he held several leadership positions in the public sector in Ohio. He began his career working at the Hartford Regional Center in the recreation, education and residential programs.
The Department of Developmental Services serves more than 19,000 people with intellectual disabilities, including more than 4,000 infants and children.
Terry Edelstein, president of the Connecticut Community Providers Association, said he is looking forward to working with Macy to convert services in institutions to community settings; to restructure rates for day programs and residential services; and address the impact on service delivery with the continued freeze in residential reimbursement.