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Molly McGrath Tierney
Director
Baltimore City Department of Social Services
Leader of the city’s Department of Social Services since 2008, Molly McGrath Tierney is responsible for critical safety-net services for about 250,000 people each year. Among the programs her department administers are food stamps, child protection, foster care and homelessness prevention.
Under her leadership, the agency has seen substantial drops in the number of foster children and the number of youth placed in group homes.
She previously was deputy director of the City of Chicago Department of Social Services and deputy director of the District of Columbia Child and Family Services Agency.
Tierney has served on the board of the Maryland Foster Youth Resource Center, the Annie E. Casey Foundation Children and Family Fellowship Network.
Why Maryland?
I was born in Maryland, and in grammar school moved away. In the 40 years since then I struggled to find a place where I felt I belonged. A crooked road I never could have imagined led me home to Baltimore in 2008. I am ever prouder to call myself a Marylander — to raise my family here and to, every day, contribute to my community by improving the lives of our most vulnerable children and families.
