Mary Ellen Caron, Ph.D. Biography

Mary Ellen Caron, Ph.D., was named commissioner of the new Chicago Department of Family and Support Services in January of 2009 by Mayor Richard M. Daley. The new Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (FSS) is a consolidation of several of the City’s former human service departments and works to provide a continuum of support for Chicago’s vulnerable residents, beginning at birth through the senior years.

From 2004 until December of 2008, Dr. Caron served as commissioner of the Chicago Department of Children and Youth Services, now part of FSS, which provided community-based services that promoted the well-being and successful development of Chicago’s youngest residents, while strengthening families and their communities.

Previously, Dr. Caron was a special assistant to the chief executive officer of the Chicago Board of Education, where she leveraged her administrative background to improve Chicago’s public schools. She opened new schools, closed poor-performing ones and acted as liaison for operations and oversight of professional-development schools.

Dr. Caron is the founding principal of the Frances Xavier Warde School, an elementary school with over 700 students in downtown Chicago.

Under her leadership, the Department of Children and Youth Services became the recipient of the Gold Quill Award of Excellence – 2006. She also serves in the Prevent Child Abuse Task Force for the City of Chicago and most recently, she received the Women’s Initiative Child Link Award, for connecting the youth of Childlink to homeless counseling and summer mentoring programs.