Six Things You May Not Know About Our New CAO!

We would like to announce and congratulate Jill Cretella on her new leadership position of Chief Administrative Officer at Marrakech, Inc.! Jill has been part of the Marrakech family since 1999 and we are thrilled to have her continue as part of the new leadership team!  Jill has held various management positions, overseeing many different programs and developing new ones for the agency over the years. She brings this wisdom and experience, along with the extensive knowledge and skill needed to help lead us into a new era of success!

Jill earned her Master's Degree in Social Work from Fordham University and is an Employment and Community Services Program Surveyor for CARF International, an accreditation body for human service organizations across the United States and Canada. Jill is also the Treasurer of the Board of Directors for the Governor's Coalition for Youth with Disabilities. She chairs our own Heath and Wellness Committee, which in its first year and a half, helped Marrakech earn the honor of being awarded the Gold Fit-Friendly Work Site Status from the American Heart Association and the 2013 Large Business of the Year for Workplace Wellness from the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce and the Health Care Council Board due to all of the successful events she lead her committee in organizing.

We've gotten to know Jill pretty well over the years, but here are Six Things you may not know about her!

1. I have a 12 year old cat named Babalou that I very much treat like a member of our family and she knows it!
2. In my spare time, I really enjoy fitness classes like Barre, Piloxing and different kinds of Yoga. Now that the weather is getting nice, you may also be likely to find me at one of the Connecticut vineyards on the weekend.
3. The one food I can't live without is Bacon.  I know that sounds bad coming from the Health and Wellness Chair, but I don't eat it very often...everything in moderation! One food I think should simply not exist is mayonnaise.  I actually think there should be a law banning it! 
4. One thing many people do know about me is that I have really curly hair that I am lucky enough to also be able to straighten when I want.  However, what many people don't know is that in high school and college, the only way I could get it really straight was to use a clothes iron.  Yes, I would actually lay my head on the ironing board and place the iron directly on my hair to flatten it out. Thank goodness flat iron technology has improved since then!
5. The last book I read was Random Family: Love, Drugs and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. It is an amazing book and I highly recommend it if you like a true story that reads like a novel and teaches you a lot at the same time.
6. I grew up taking dance class and until very recently still took adult tap classes, so I can bust out a time step on demand!

Congratulations, again, Jill! Please stay tuned for more "Six Things" blogs coming soon about other members of our Marrakech family!