Chris Hart

Says Christopher Hart, vice president of programs and interim executive director of the McGaw YMCA, "By teaming up with Lekotek in this adventure, our goal is to effectively include children with disabilities into our programs and to ensure a successful experience for all children."

Christopher Hart, PRINCIPAL

Christopher Hart serves as a Principal at Bliss Training & Consulting with specific responsibility for learning content design for leadership, management and performance curricula and integration with client organizational development systems.Over the course of this year, he has worked with such clients as Abbott AVD, TAP Pharmaceuticals, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, InSight Health Corp. and Kraft Foods.Specifically, Chris has lead internal teams for the design of comprehensive learning platforms for a 1,300 person sales force aimed at teaching integrated go-to-market strategies.Organizational development work has included competency mapping for recruitment and hiring, design of operation management training and updated performance management systems, and values-based cultural learning experiences for corporate workforces.Prior to joining Bliss Training & Consulting, Chris served as the Interim Executive Director and Vice President at a large non-profit in Evanston, Illinois.Management experience included overseeing an $8 million dollar health and wellness real-estate project, leading corporate contract negotiations with national learning institutions, and development of comprehensive performance management systems.He has been awarded status as Faculty at the YMCA of the USA in Chicago for the teaching of Conflict Management and Negotiation courses at National Program Schools.In 1998, Chris co-founded a non-profit corporation, Wilderness Bay Wellness Foundation, for the design and delivery of experiential and therapeutic learning models for clinical recovery purposes.Among other program accomplishments, those associates designed the country's first support program for families to identify coping mechanisms when facing a cancer diagnosis.Chris holds a B.A. in Business Management with a concentration in Human Resources from Gettysburg College.

Contact: Chris Hart

Phone: (847) 475-7400

Fax: (847) 475-7959

Email: chrish@mcgawymca.org

Advocacy Task Force - Chris Hart: There is no formal report for this committee.

Chris Hart, vice president of the McGaw YMCA, said the YMCA's directors have already discussed plans for collaborating with D65.He said final decisions are in the hands of district officials.

Although Hart said the YMCA program is more expensive than the district's program, low-income children receiving state funds now still would be subsidized for childcare.There would be no cap on the number of children accepted, he said.

Chris Hart, vice president of the McGaw YMCA, said the center is creating new infant and toddler rooms.

For now, the YMCA has the facilities to accommodate more children, Hart said.But he is unsure about the future.

"No one knows what may occur down the road," Hart said."We've only got four walls and our ability to expand is 'x' amount."

Law Prof. Charlotte Crane said she is pleased the university finally is making arrangements for university child care.

"Certainly, to the extent that child care is something the university is thinking about, the university is being responsive," said Crane, chairwoman of NU's Committee on Women in the Academic Community and served on the university's child-care committee."Their attitude clearly has changed."

Chris Hart, vice president of the McGaw YMCA, said he expects more NU families to enroll in YMCA programs as the partnership continues, pointing out that enrollment is up from 52 in 2002-03.

"A number of families were already utilizing care within the community, so in the first two or three years you will not see the whole volume being handled by the YMCA," he said.