Attorney Ari Christakis Becomes Royer-Greaves' Board President

Paoli, PA… Royer-Greaves School for Blind – which provides supportive educational, therapeutic, and residential services for children and adults with visual impairment coupled with intellectual and other disabilities – has named local attorney Ari Christakis as its new President of the school’s Board of Directors.

Christakis takes the gavel from outgoing president Dan Green, who decided to step down earlier this year after more than 25 years as board president. Green, a retired senior vice president of sales and marketing for Malvern Federal Savings Bank, has been a member of the Royer-Greaves Board since 1967, serving for more than half of the organization’s 100-year history. He will continue to serve on the board.

Green Led Royer-Greaves’ Effort to Serve Adults
Green was Royer-Greaves’ third president and the first one not related to Jessie Royer Greaves, who founded the school for students who have visual impairment coupled with intellectual and other disabilities in 1921. It was under Mr. Green’s leadership that Royer-Greaves expanded its mission to serve adults through Royer-Greaves Services. This includes the Adult Training Program, which offers training, various therapies, recreation, and other services at the Paoli
campus, as well as community-based residential options.

“We added the adult program so that when students graduated from high school, they could continue with us,” he said. “We also have four community homes which are shared by adults who have staff support. We wanted them to have the experience and the responsibility of living in a home, and I am so pleased that this is exactly what has occurred. They enjoy rewarding lives and as much independence as possible.”

Royer-Greaves Executive Director Vicky Mayer called Green a compassionate, forward-thinking leader.“He was very supportive of our efforts to create community living arrangements, and he spoke with other Board Members about his support. We could not have started our group home program without him,” she said. “More recently, he learned about and then supported the creation of our Lifesharing program, in which adults live with individuals or families in the community. He’s been very progressive.”

Asked what has kept him interested in Royer-Greaves for so many years, Green said, “It’s mainly the clients that we serve and working with the wonderful Royer-Greaves staff. If you went down the roster of our employees, you would see that they have also served for many decades, which is remarkable.”

Green, who is 76, has held several other volunteer leadership positions in the community, serving on the board of the Paoli Business and Professional Association and as business manager of the Paoli Fire Company. A veteran who served in Vietnam, he was treasurer and commander of the Paoli Chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He and Susan, his wife of 45 years, have four children and five grandchildren.

Christakis Sees More Community-Based Services in Royer-Greaves’ Future
New Board President Christakis said he hopes to “carry on (Green’s) tradition of leadership and excellence.”

An attorney with Buckley Brion McGuire & Morris specializing in real estate, land use, and government practice, Christakis, 41, has been a Board Member for five years. “I grew up in Paoli, less than a mile from the school, and I can’t think of a better way to give back to the community than to serve such a great organization with an important mission in the place where I grew up,” said Christakis, who resides in Malvern with his wife, Rachel, and young son.

Christakis hopes to lead Royer-Greaves in an expansion of the community-based services it offers. “We started our first 100 years in Paoli. Since then, we have expanded to offer residential group homes and Lifesharing opportunities for the adults we serve that are located throughout the Greater Philadelphia region. I see us at a point of transition where we will continue to broaden our regional footprint,”he said. “That’s the way the world is turning now for all of us – we all want to do more right in our own community, and so Royer-Greaves will continue expanding our services into the places where people already live.”

There will always be a need to bring people together outside of their homes for educational and other services, however, so some growth and change will take place on the Paoli campus, said Christakis.

“As Royer-Greaves has always done, we will look for children and adults whose needs are not fully served and find a way to serve them. Filling the holes in our social safety net is what an organization like Royer-Greaves is meant to do.”