2024 Most Influential Women: Maggie Rollwagen

When a decision needs to be made, Abilities First President and CEO Maggie Rollwagen makes it – decisively.

Perhaps that comes from a rich background that includes experience in child welfare, behavioral therapy, case management, special education and running a business. 

Perhaps it comes from having a strong work ethic.

“I am always working to look out for my employees’ best interests, even if I put more work on myself coming early and staying late,” says Rollwagen.

What Abilities First does every day, according to its website, is “push the boundaries of every person’s potential so there are no limitations. … We help families find the resources they need for their family member with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism or other developmental disability.”

Rollwagen has been at Abilities First, making sure those opportunities exist, since 2012. But in her recent position, the list of opportunities is burgeoning.

“When I took the position of president/CEO, I had to decide what initiatives to invest our time and resources in very quickly through a restructure. This included … working with our newly formed executive team in fighting to win a bid for the next five years of our Missouri First Steps contract. I had to make the decision of whether we would throw ourselves in the fight for yet another contract with the state of Missouri, which we did achieve and are the only county board in the state to do so,” Rollwagen says.

The Abilities First Community Education program speaks to her ability to drive change.

“I built the Abilities First Community Education team and program from the ground up before taking the position of president and CEO. This program provides education about inclusion, tools to use to be more inclusive and consultation to the Greene County businesses, nonprofits, academic institutions and civic groups,” she said.

Abilities First overall serves over 8,000 people in 26 counties.

Rollwagen also has goals for those who do the helping.

“I am working as a leader to understand how to provide education about how to support our Targeted Case Management program and advocate to anyone who will listen that the TCM rate has not increased in 10 years and we are experiencing a staffing crisis. Here in Greene County, Abilities First Next Step Program provides TCM for about 2,500 people,” she said. “Targeted case managers are the gatekeepers for $11.6 billion in service authorizations for people with developmental disabilities in Missouri and monitor the quality of services they receive. They deserve a better rate of pay. … It is my hope that if recognized as one of the most influential women I could shine a light on this vital issue.”