New Chief Executive Officer

I am very pleased to let you know that with unanimous and enthusiastic support from the Board of Directors, Mary Denton has been appointed the new Chief Executive Officer of Sunny Hills Services.

Mary came to Sunny Hills in 2000 to serve as Chief Financial Officer, and subsequently consulted with Joe Costa in the agency’s strategic and business planning. During her tenure, she has worked diligently to professionalize Sunny Hills’ operations and strengthen our administrative infrastructure. As Chief Finance and Administration Officer, a position she held since 2008, Mary has been a key member of the executive team guiding the agency through the recent challenging economic downturn. In her decade of working with Sunny Hills, Mary has acquired the experience and built the relationships that are critical to the continued success of the agency.

Following a 19-year career at Bank of America in international syndicated lending and investment management, Mary consulted with major international banks and financial institutions in strategy, policy and business implementation in international investments and financial markets. She has consulted in the nonprofit sector, and currently serves on the board of directors for the Marin Humane Society. A California native, Mary resides in Larkspur with her husband, Monte Deignan. Mary received her bachelor's degree in economics at the University of California, Riverside, Phi Beta Kappa and holds a master's in business administration in Finance and International Business from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

This is a time of great positive momentum for Sunny Hills: our staff and programs are strong, and we continue to expand our crucial services to vulnerable children, youth and their families. I am confident that Mary will provide knowledgeable, thoughtful leadership through the agency’s ongoing evolution and growth. I would like to thank you for your support of Sunny Hills, and of the vulnerable children and families we are all working together to serve. I welcome your continued feedback through this transition, and I hope you will join me in saying: congratulations Mary!

Lydia Cameron
President, Sunny Hills Services Board of Directors

New Year, New Beginnings

It is with a flurry of mixed emotions that I let you all know of my departure from Sunny Hills at the end of 2009. After eight years as Chief Executive Officer at Sunny Hills Services, I have made the decision to accept a new challenge and become the CEO at Hillsides in South Pasadena. Like Sunny Hills, Hillsides is a multi-service agency for at-risk children and youth with a century-long track record of serving vulnerable children and families. I know that all I have learned during my tenure at Sunny Hills will be invaluable in my new role. Sunny Hills is an incredible agency, and I am so proud of all that we have accomplished through the last eight years.

I want to offer particular thanks to all of the community volunteers, donors, staff people, board members and families who have supported Sunny Hills during my tenure. There have been many challenges and many triumphs during these important transition years for the agency. Today, Sunny Hills serves more children than ever. Programmatically, demographically, and geographically the agency is reaching farther than it ever has in its 115-year history. This is no small feat, and I hope that you all share my sense of accomplishment when you consider the ways the agency has grown and evolved these past eight years, while remaining strong and true to its mission.

Sunny Hills will continue to count on all of us for support through its ongoing evolution. I know that my own commitment to the agency, its programs, and especially the children that it serves is not in any way lessening, but is merely changing. I hope that you will join me in supporting Sunny Hills through this transition and those that will undoubtedly arise through the coming years, as the agency continues to provide for the most vulnerable young people in our community. Thank you, as always, for your commitment to those young people.

The Board of Directors is meeting on January 11th to determine the leadership transition plan. Stay tuned for more information, here and on the agency site at www.sunnyhillsservices.org. Board President Lydia Cameron welcomes your questions and comments about the transition; her contact information is available on the site as well.

It has been a great honor, and a true pleasure, for me to work with such a strong community of supporters on behalf of the children we serve. I thank you, again, for your tremendous support of me and of this agency. It has been humbling, and is deeply appreciated.

With all best wishes for a happy new year…………Paz!

Joe