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FELS Continued from Page 1
the Commonwealth. I feel so
fortunate for having spent
years — even decades — with
such compassionate, dedicated
professionals, many of whom I
consider family.”
Malis was forthcoming
about the strangeness of it all.

“I’m not old enough to be
anywhere for 50 years,” she
laughed. Malis’ career is as decorated
as it is lengthy. She’s won
countless grants for FELS, and
created departments within the
organization that make it what
it is today. She’s opened up new
branches to serve new popula-
tions, and kept educational
standards at an award-winning
level. Malis has overseen Child Care
Information Services Northeast,
a body that authorizes subsi-
dized child care to thousands
of residents of Northeast
Philadelphia. She was co-chair
of the Southeastern Pennsylvania
Child Care Coalition, served
as a board member and officer
for the Pennsylvania Child
Care Association and sat on
United Way’s Early Childhood
Education Advisory Committee.

She’s a graduate of the Wexner
Tri-State Jewish Leadership
12 OCTOBER 1, 2020
FELS CEO Maddy Malis will retire on Oct. 9.
program, and she’s overseen the
education of thousands of young
children. “It’s truly an accomplish-
ment that she’s A) with an
organization that long, and B)
that it has grown to what it has
become,” said Ron Perilstein, a
longtime member of the FELS
board and a past chairman.

Courtesy of FELS
“She has made her mark and
she will leave her mark on this
community, and on the early
childhood education commu-
nity, not only in Philadelphia,
but across the state.”
Pamela Thomas, who has
been vice president and chief
financial officer in her 12
years with FELS, calls Malis
“the sidewalk doctor,” a refer-
ence to Malis’ propensity to let
you know that you should get
medical problems checked out.

But more than that, she believes,
Malis’ legacy is as a true leader
of the people around her.

“She is more than just the
CEO,” Thomas said. “She
actually cares about everyone
that works under her, with
her, and always tries to bring
everyone along to meet the
goals of the organization.”
Malis grew up in Northeast
Philadelphia, attending Gilbert
Spruance Elementary School.

Her father, Jerome Ralph Malis,
worked for a lumber company;
now 96, he still works there.

Encouragement from “Mrs.

Mandy,” Malis’ fourth-grade
teacher, put her on the path to
JEWISH EXPONENT
Maddy Malis during her early years at what is now the Paley Early
Learning Center
Courtesy of Maddy Malis
education as a vocation and,
within a few years, Malis was
running her own day camp,
scooping up 10 toddlers from
around the neighborhood for a
few hours of story time, games,
Kool-Aid and art projects.

After finishing a program
at Temple University in child
care, Malis began her career
as a teacher at what is now the
Paley Early Learning Center.

Paley was a Jewish Federation
project and, in the early 1970s,
it was folded into Federation
Day Care Services.

Soon after that merger,
Malis’ talents for organization
were noted by Norman Finkel,
who was CEO then. Finkel
encouraged her to join the
administration and nurtured
her career for as long as he
was with FELS. Finkel’s ideas
about what a work environ-
ment should be — “a tight
family,” Malis said — were
hugely influential on her as she
worked her way through every
management job that FELS had
to offer.

She’s certainly needed that
family in the last few months,
as the COVID-19 pandemic
made education a difficult
prospect and gave it new polit-
ical dimensions. Malis was
proud that FELS committed to
in-person education early on
and, thus far, things have gone
smoothly, more or less.

Her real-life family, perhaps
more than anyone else, under-
stands what she has gone
through. Her son, Eric Malis, an
attorney in Palo Alto, California,
explained that it wasn’t only his
mother’s desire to do the right
thing every time that weighed
on her; the consequences of
those decisions stuck with her,
long after they’d concluded.

Watching his mother, Eric Malis
said, he wasn’t aware until later
in life that her dedication to
her profession was something
exceptional. “She really put her whole
self into trying to do what was
right,” he said. That pressure, he
believes, “helps build the person
that she is: the person I’m so
proud to call my mother.” l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM