Theresa C. Nihill, LCSW

Chief Operating Officer

Theresa Coye Nihill, former Executive Director of Metropolitan DuPage Center, is Chief Operating Officer of Metropolitan Family Services. Nihill leads the human services agency’s work to expand and build new systems, further strengthen its community partnerships, and continue to deliver and build its high-quality programming and services. Nihill has served in her current role since 2016, and launched her career as a social worker at Metropolitan in 1986.

Nihill has been a champion for families and individuals throughout her career, with a strong emphasis on improving their access to behavioral health services and the quality of those services. During her tenure as COO she has helped to develop the Behavioral Health Consortium of Illinois (BHS), including securing the BHC’s first sub-contract for Williams Colbert services. She brought in Metropolitan Family Services as one of the original owner-provider agencies in the innovative Illinois Health Practice Association (IHPA). Nihill also created Metropolitan Family Services’ Revenue Cycle Management Department, enabling the agency to actually capture the fee-for-service billable revenue for its behavioral health work. In addition, she developed and implemented new behavioral health productivity standards and operational processes for Metropolitan in order to increase the agency’s behavioral health revenue.

Nihill has led numerous additional initiatives as Metropolitan Family Services’ COO. Examples include creating the agency’s Strategy and Innovation Department, which has led to substantial growth in Metropolitan’s early childhood services, workforce development services and domestic violence services. She also created Metropolitan’s Compliance Department to insure Metropolitan is compliant with legal and ethical requirements and to mitigate agency risk.

Understanding the opportunity to advance client services county-wide, Nihill also led Metropolitan Family Services’ merger with Family Shelter Service to integrate domestic violence services with behavioral health and early childhood education in DuPage County. In addition, she directed the restructure of several Metropolitan Centers – including its North/Evanston/Skokie Center, Southwest Center and Southeast Chicago Center – with the goal of increasing Metropolitan’s presence in the communities those Centers serve, as well as the breadth of services offered and the number of people served.

Nihill holds multiple state leadership roles where she works to advance behavioral health and early learning. She serves on the Board of HR Source, a for-profit human resources consulting firm which serves businesses across Illinois in various sectors, including human services. She also serves on the Board of the DuPage Health Coalition, and she is Chair of its Board Governance Committee, which creates systems for medical care (primary, specialty, mental health and substance use) for the uninsured in DuPage County. Nihill also is a member of the Governor’s Early Learning Council in Illinois. In addition, she is active with her alma mater, serving on the Alumnae Association Board of Directors for St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN, where she also chairs several committees.

Nihill earned her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN, and her Master’s degree in Social Work from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA.