We are pleased to announce that our 70th Citizen of the Year is Peg Wright!
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 600 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 parent-infant mental 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.