Leadership
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Peg Wright
Peg Wright has served as the President and CEO of The Center for Great Expectations since 1998, when she founded The Center to assist homeless, pregnant women and adolescents in “breaking the cycle” of homelessness, abuse and addiction. The program began in a donated house in Somerville, serving twelve women per year. Under Peg’s leadership, CGE now provides an uncompromised continuum of care across prevention and treatment of substance use and mental health disorders for individuals who have experienced trauma with relationally-based programs including Residential Treatment Centers for women and adolescents and their children; Katy’s Place, an on-site child development center; the Roots to Recovery outpatient center in New Brunswick; 28 units of Permanent Supportive Housing; and START, community-based telehealth and home visitation and doula support services for pregnant or parenting clients in recovery and their infants and the professional development and consulting services of The Institute of CGE.
During her first career in sales and sales management of diagnostic imaging equipment, Peg developed the dynamic skills she uses today to partner with the public, private, and academic sectors to bring the highest level of care to the clients of The Center. She is passionate in collaborating with dedicated behavioral health clinicians, specializing in trauma-informed care and early relational health, to advance the individualized, compassionate mental health and substance use treatment CGE provides to marginalized women and men from all counties of New Jersey.
On September 23rd, 2021, Peg will receive Somerset County Business Partnership’s 70th Citizen of the Year Award. In 2018, Peg was recognized for her service to the community, receiving the New Jersey State Governor’s Award for Public Service, by the State of New Jersey, the Jefferson Awards Foundation. She was also named Citizen of the Year by the New Jersey Psychology Association, an award given to a non-psychologist who has made significant contributions to the ideals of mental health or social welfare. That same year, Wright was named in the “Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs and Intrapraneurs” by New Jersey monthly magazine, in the categories of Innovation, Community Involvement, and Advocacy for Women. In 2015, Peg was selected as an NJBIZ “Top 50 Women in Business,” an affirmation of her outstanding contribution in the nonprofit sector. and was honored to be named a “New Jersey Hero,” by the NJ Heroes Foundation. Governor Chris and First Lady Mary Pat Christie and leaders of the Foundation visited The Center for Great Expectations to tour the facilities, meet clients and staff, and deliver Peg’s award, along with a foundation grant.