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Maribeth
Vander Weele is president of the Vander Weele Group. A Certified
Protection Professional and a Certified Inspector General, she has
managed thousands of complex investigations into employee and vendor
misconduct in the public and private sectors. She has performed
security assignments in Chicago, Pennsylvania, Singapore, China,
Malaysia, and Mexico.
Ms.
Vander Weele is the former Inspector General of Chicago Public Schools,
the former president of the Illinois Association of Inspectors
General, an award-winning journalist, and a noted public speaker who devoted
her career to fostering integrity and efficiency in government.
The author of the 1995 book, Reclaiming Our Schools, the Struggle
for Chicago School Reform, she played a key role in Mayor Richard
M. Daley’s management turnaround team for Chicago schools.
Ms. Vander Weele has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal,
Teacher Magazine, Education Week, and in the 1998 book, Extraordinary
Ordinary Women Making a Difference. Her work is cited in the book, Battling Corruption in America’s
Public Schools.
CAREER
HIGHLIGHTS
Vander
Weele Group, President 2003
to Present
Ms.
Vander Weele owns and operates the Vander Weele Group, a
Chicago-based professional services firm that provides
investigative, security, and integrity program services.
Chadwick Associates, Associate 2002
to 2003
Ms.
Vander Weele performed high level investigative and security services
for Chadwick Associates, Inc., a professional services firm in
Washington, D.C. She continues to be an associate of that firm.
Chicago
Public Schools, Inspector General 1998
to 2002
As
Inspector General of the nation's third-largest school system,
Ms. Vander Weele oversaw a staff that investigated thousands of
cases of fraud, waste, and misconduct in the operations and contracting
of city schools. Appointed Inspector General by Chicago Mayor
Richard M. Daley in 1998, she restructured the agency to ensure
that investigations were conducted according to the highest professional
standards. She oversaw a construction mediation unit and instituted
management reviews of key operational areas such as busing, construction,
food services, information technology, and janitorial services.
Chicago
Public Schools, Chief of Investigations
1995
to 1998
In
1995, Ms. Vander Weele joined the management team charged by Mayor
Daley to turn around the city schools. As a key adviser to the
Chief Executive Officer, she spearheaded system-wide policy and
management reforms to restore integrity, promote accountability,
and improve the quality of public education in Chicago. As Chief
of Investigations from 1995 to 1998, she created a team that investigated
employee integrity issues and oversaw the Internal Audit Unit,
which conducted financial and management reviews. Ms. Vander Weele
also managed a $3 million Safe Schools grant, through which her
team created a Truancy Hotline that returned thousands of children
to school and administered small school grants for truancy prevention.
Author,
Reclaiming Our Schools 1995
Reclaiming
Our Schools, the Struggle for Chicago School Reform, based on
Ms. Vander Weele’s investigative reporting for the Chicago
Sun-Times, became the roadmap for the nationally acclaimed reform
of the school system. The Illinois state legislature and the school
system adopted and implemented dozens of its recommendations,
enabling the system to achieve significant improvement.
Speaker
Ms.
Vander Weele has lectured at seminars for Harvard University,
the National Business Roundtable, the Public Broadcasting System,
the Association of Inspectors General, the National Association
of Local Government Auditors, the Illinois Association of Certified
Public Accountants, the Chicago Chapter of the Association of
Certified Fraud Examiners, the National Education Writers Association,
the Golden Apple Foundation, a Miami-Dade forum on ethics in government,
and in many other forums nationwide.
ASSOCIATIONS
AND CERTIFICATIONS
Ms. Vander Weele is a Certified Inspector General, a Certified Protection
Professional, and a licensed private detective in Illinois and
Virginia. The
Vander Weele Group is licensed as an Illinois investigative agency
and certified as a woman-owned enterprise in the City of Chicago,
Cook County, and the State of Illinois. It is registered as a
woman-owned business with the Small Business Administration.
Ms. Vander Weele is a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the American Society for Industrial Security,
the Illinois Manufacturers' Association, and the International Trade Club of Chicago.
She is a member of the board of Time Dollar Tutoring, a Chicago
not-for-profit organization that provides tutoring and computers to
disadvantaged youth.
Ms.
Vander Weele holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science
from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. She has provided and undertaken extensive
training in fraud examination and security-related matters.
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