A look at the men and women making a difference in children’s lives.

Michelle Maikoetter
Title: Chief Program Officer

Other positions held here: Assistant Administrator for Girls and Pre-Adolescents, Senior Vice-President of Residential Programs

How long employed at Cal Farley’s: Since 2007

Qualifications & experience: Master’s degree, state and nationally licensed as a professional counselor and supervisor. Child care administrator’s license, 22 years in childcare including wilderness programming, juvenile justice, after-school programming and domestic violence/sexual assault.

Immediate family members: Husband Michael Hawk and two daughters Carsen and Riley.

What is the best part of your job? Having the opportunity to do so much for so many kids and families; we have the most amazing resources here ­— physical, spiritual, emotional, financial which allows us the ability to truly individualize care.

What is the most challenging part of your job? Even with all of these resources, amazing people, outstanding training and extensive experience — there are times when this environment is not a good fit for a child. Not being able to help in the way we want to is extremely sad for me.

Describe the moment you realized how important your work/Cal Farley’s is to the children we serve: When I began to understand it takes a healthy community of healthy adults to raise healthy children. We have the ability to help change a child’s trajectory in a way that can have undeniable positive consequences for his/her future relationships with others such as being a spouse, a neighbor and especially a parent. We can break some of the cycles which concern us as a society — addiction issues, abuse, homelessness, poverty.

What inspired you to seek employment with Cal Farley’s? A previous supervisor called to tell me about a job opening here. He said Cal Farley’s was the best place he had ever worked. The idea of moving to the Texas Panhandle seemed crazy to me, but his endorsement definitely piqued my interest. Once I saw the place and met the people, I had to get here.

What would you most like our youth to remember about you? I don’t know how many of our youth even know who I am or what I do — so I’m not sure, but for the staff here — I hope they remember me as someone who was willing to stand up when I needed to stand up and tried to do my best for each person in front of me.