40th Anniversary Symposium
Mary Lee Leahy (August 1974 to January 1977)

Mary Lee Leahy, the first lawyer to become a DCFS Director, garnered a number of firsts during her stay. She implemented the nation’s first subsidized adoption program. She signed the first collective bargaining agreement in Illinois, and she was the first Director to demand that private agencies open their books to show exactly how money given by DCFS was being spent. Leahy also moved children from out-of-state institutions, built up homemaker services, opened a central hotline for services and strengthened likening rules.