As an Ambassador, Sally Glick, Principal of the Firm and Chief Growth Strategist at SobelCo, brings the firm the experience and insights she has gained during her 30+ years in the profession. She has spent her career working as a marketing consultant assisting CPA firms across the country. At SobelCo she has responsibility for the firm’s marketing communications/branding and its focus on business development.

Peg Wright has served as the President and CEO of The Center for Great Expectations since 1998, when she founded The Center to assist homeless, pregnant women, and adolescents in “breaking the cycle” of homelessness, abuse, and addiction. The program began in a donated house in Somerville, serving twelve women per year. Under Peg’s leadership, CGE now serves over 900 people annually, through a host of dynamic and comprehensive service programs, including expanded residential programs, treating both adult women and adolescent mothers and their children; an outpatient center, specializing in gender-specific treatment for women and men with substance use and or co-occurring disorders; supportive housing, providing 28 units in Somerset and Middlesex Counties; a vibrant and enriching child development center; and an in-home program providing clinical and case management service to mothers and women in recovery from opioid use disorder.

Peg leads a team of over 100 full- and part-time employees, countless volunteers, and a dedicated Board of Directors. Her commitment to providing the most impactful programming has supported an innovative clinical approach—integrating trauma-informed care with parent-infant mental health—resulting in programs that address underlying traumas and focus on building self-esteem, life skills, and the critical relationship between mother and child. During her first career in sales and sales management of diagnostic imaging equipment, Peg developed the dynamic skills she uses today to partner with the public, private, and academic sectors to bring the highest level of care to the clients of The Center. She is passionate in collaborating with dedicated behavioral health clinicians, specializing in trauma-informed care and early relational health, to advance the individualized, compassionate mental health and substance use treatment CGE provides to marginalized women and men from all counties of New Jersey.

On September 23rd, 2021, Peg will receive Somerset County’s 70th Citizen of the Year Award. In 2018, Peg was recognized for her service to the community, receiving the New Jersey State Governor’s Award for Public Service, by the State of New Jersey, the Jefferson Awards Foundation. Also in 2018, she was named Citizen of the Year by the New Jersey Psychology Association, an award given to a non-psychologist who has made significant contributions to the ideals of mental health or social welfare, Also in 2018, Wright was named in the “Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs” by New Jersey Monthly magazine, in the categories of Innovation, Community Involvement, and Advocacy for Women. In 2015, Peg was selected as an NJBIZ “Top 50 Women in Business,” an affirmation of her outstanding contribution to the nonprofit sector. and was honored to be named a “New Jersey Hero,” by the NJ Heroes Foundation. Governor Chris and First Lady Mary Pat Christie and leaders of the Foundation visited The Center for Great Expectations to tour the facilities, meet clients and staff, and deliver Peg’s award, along with a foundation grant.

Since June of 2002, Jim Kirkos has served as President & Chief Executive Officer of the Meadowlands Regional Chamber and Meadowlands Live! - CVB whose mission is to accelerate economic, community and business development by providing its membership with relationship-building opportunities; destination marketing services; business education and legislative affairs advocacy to businesses of all sizes across all industry sectors throughout the greater Meadowlands region.

Jim has served on the Meadowlands Transportation Planning Board, the New Jersey Transit Advisory Council, the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority Stakeholders Committee and is currently serving the Felician University Business Advisory Board, the Bergen Leads Advisory Board, Meadowlink Board of Trustees and the Hackensack Meridian Health Ventures Board. Jim served as a Trustee and President of Glen Ridge Country Club and was elected to the DC-based national board of Destinations International that represents DMO’s in the USA. Jim was appointed to serve on Governor Murphy’s Transition Team for Urban and Regional Economic Development and was also appointed to serve the NJ Hellenic Commission by the Governor.

Jim attended Montclair State University and Fairleigh Dickinson University majoring in Business Administration and Accounting before becoming a business owner and entrepreneur in the foodservice and hospitality industry. His business career began in1980 with the opening of a family restaurant and continued through 2001 when he sold his food service and catering company.