Local child care leader takes state job

LACONIA — Marti Ilg, under whose leadership Lakes Region Child Care Services doubled in capacity, will be beginning a job with state government later this month.

Ilg has been hired as deputy director of the Division of Economic and Housing Stability, which is organized under the Department of Health and Human Services.

Ilg was hired at Lakes Region Child Care Services in 2004, first as a teacher, then program coordinator. She was hired as the center’s executive director in June, 2009, just in time to learn that cuts in state support, necessary due to the so-called Great Recession, would result in a 10-percent hit to her nonprofit organization’s bottom line.

Ilg had no choice but to restructure the organization, two weeks after being named its director.

“It allowed me to make some moves that worked out really, really well for the organization,” she said. “It allowed us to be more flexible.”

Over the next 10 years, Lakes Region Child Care Services, which had only its Laconia location when she became director, added a site in Belmont and another in Laconia. Last year, the organization merged with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire. Since June 2019, Ilg has served as chief operating officer of the newly integrated organization, Central NH Child Care Services.

Ilg’s last day in her current position is today, March 17. “I started in a recession and now I’m ending in coronavirus,” she mused.

In her new role, which she begins March 27, Ilg’s responsibilities will include the department of child development and Head Start collaboration, family support services, the preschool development grant staff, and department-wide integration in the areas of personnel, training and programs.

She said she was “honored and excited” by her new position.

“For someone who has been working in service of New Hampshire children and families my whole career, it’s an amazing opportunity to do more, for more,” Ilg said. “It’s everything I’ve been doing all these years, all in one place.”

Chris Emond, CEO of Central NH Child Care Services, worked with Ilg to merge the two organizations last year. Of Ilg, he said, “Our organization benefited greatly from Marti’s expertise over the past seven months. She put in place a five-year operational plan and developed a fantastic team of leaders to carry it out. She pushed the organization toward continued excellence in the delivery of our early childhood and school aged services. New Hampshire children and families are fortunate that Marti will continue to work tirelessly on their behalf.”