Mark Whitley, President and CEO, Easterseals Southern California (ESSC), has dedicated his life and career to serving the disability community. Since assuming this role in 1989, Mark’s vision has been to make Southern California the most inclusive place in the country for people with disabilities to live, learn, work and play. To do so, Mark has significantly expanded and evolved the organization, continually innovating and challenging his team to meet the ever-changing needs of our nation’s largest and most diverse minority population.
Today, Easterseals Southern California provides services to more than 19,000 people, spanning 60-plus service sites and hundreds of community partnership locations across Southern California. The organization provides the highest quality autism therapy, adult/senior day services; child development/early education; residential/independent living services; employment services and much more.
Mark is most proud of his work to successfully:
- Initiate new, and cutting-edge programs to better serve thousands more of our Southern California neighbors with disabilities.
- Expand the organization’s geographic service area from two to eight counties, covering Kern County to the north down to San Diego and Imperial counties, and including the Inland Empire.
- Facilitate budget growth from $1.5 million to more than $300 million, effectively building the largest Easterseals affiliate organization in the country.
- Develop top-quality team of 2,800 professional staff and leaders (from just 20 when he came on board).
Mark is committed to realizing Easterseals bold, global purpose: to lead the way to full equity, inclusion and access through life-changing disability and community services. Under his leadership, Easterseals Southern California is advancing new awareness efforts, launching an acclaimed integrated multi-media campaign, D1$@B1L*tY is Not a Dirty Word- Say Disability With Pride,and enhancing understanding and the importance of disability inclusion across media and entertainment. This work is bringing forward new opportunities on a grand scale including the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge and the Media Access Awards With Easterseals.
Mark continues to drive Easterseals’ future success with a strong focus on quality services to meet urgent community needs. Mark serves as the organization’s spokesperson and has been featured in many local and national media articles and news segments.
As a lifelong disability advocate, Mark has worked for Easterseals affiliates throughout the country since 1976, beginning as a recreation coordinator for Easterseals Arkansas. Before transferring to Easterseals Southern California, he held increasingly responsible positions, including Special Events Coordinator at Easterseals National Office in Chicago and was President of both Easterseals Utah and Easterseals Maryland.
