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Today we announced that Dr. Arvenita W. Cherry, the company’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I), has been named the new President of the Maximus Foundation. Dr. Cherry has stepped into this leadership role effective October 1. Dr. John Boyer, who served on the Foundation’s Board of Directors and as President and Chairman for the past 17 years, will remain as Chairman until his full retirement from the Foundation later this fiscal year, at which time Dr. Cherry will assume both roles. In the interim, Drs. Boyer and Cherry will work collaboratively to ensure a seamless transition and completion of another successful grant cycle.

The Maximus Foundation, which was founded by the company’s Board of Directors in 2000, is committed to supporting organizations and programs that promote personal growth and self-sufficiency through improved health, child, and family development, as well as community development.

“Dr. Cherry has shown remarkable passion for the people who work at Maximus as well as the communities we serve,” said Bruce Caswell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Maximus. “She will excel in her new role as the Maximus Foundation’s impact continues to grow. We are grateful for Dr. Boyer’s personal commitment and efforts leading the Foundation, which culminated with the highest annual grant total in his final year at the helm.”

In June, the Maximus Foundation announced $2 million in grants to 167 nonprofit organizations across the United States to fund its three key themes for giving in 2022: community development, youth development, and healthcare services.

“As we further expand the reach of the Maximus Foundation, we’ll remain focused on establishing deeper engagement with our grantees and their work,” said Dr. Cherry. “These organizations have impacted the lives of thousands of families nationwide and we want to give them as much support as possible to deliver even more results in local communities where our employees live and work.”

As the company’s Vice President of DE&I, reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Cherry is leading Maximus’ commitment to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion are core tenets of how we think and what we do across all areas of the business. Since joining Maximus in late 2020, Dr. Cherry has evolved the DE&I strategy through a wide range of initiatives, such as conducting employee listening sessions, developing company-wide unconscious bias training and assessment for people managers, and launching Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).

“We’ve made incredible progress in recent years with DE&I and intend to build upon that by ensuring we’re aligning our Foundation giving with our DE&I strategy and initiatives,” said Dr. Cherry. “The Maximus Foundation is deeply meaningful to the people who work at Maximus because it supports nonprofits where they work and live, and we embrace our role in these communities.”