Margo Walsh ’82 receives 2025 Klingenstein Alumni Award for transformative work in recovery employment

Waynflete is pleased to announce that Margo Walsh ’82 is the recipient of the 2025 Klingenstein Alumni Award, an honor that is rooted in our mission and calls for responsible and caring participation in the world. Through the Klingenstein Award, we seek to recognize one Waynflete alumnus/alumna per year whose work at the local, national, or international level has had broad and positive ramifications.

Margo Walsh ’82 has spent her life bringing people together—and giving them another chance. A former corporate recruiter turned social entrepreneur, Margo is the founder of MaineWorks, a social staffing agency with a mission: to dignify employment for individuals returning from jail or prison, and for those in recovery from substance use disorder.

Launched in 2011, MaineWorks was born from Margo’s own experience with recovery and her deep sense of empathy for people living on the margins. Her approach has always been unconventional, intentionally challenging the transactional nature of traditional day-labor staffing models. Unlike agencies that rely on short-term, daily arrangements, MaineWorks hires its employees and provides them with structure, benefits, and the dignity of stability.

Employment was only part of the solution. In 2017, Margo co-founded United Recovery Fund with her sister, Elaine Walsh Carney ’88, to offer practical solutions to obstacles to employment, including rent assistance, transportation, work gear, mobile phones, and access to dental and mental healthcare services. Together, the two organizations form a rare ecosystem of support that bridges the gap between hopelessness and possibility. That ecosystem expanded in 2024 with the creation of Cecil’s Place Sober Living, which offers safe and secure housing for the MaineWorks workforce.

MaineWorks has grown into a widely recognized model of what social enterprise can be. It was the first Maine company to be certified as a B Corporation (a designation for organizations that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency) and has received numerous accolades, including Small Business of the Year and multiple Best for the World honors from B Lab for its work with underserved populations. Margo also consults with government agencies and organizations interested in replicating the MaineWorks model in other communities. In 2025, Margo was invited to present a TED Talk on the importance of work for marginalized people.

Margo’s vision has always been shaped by a deep sense of social responsibility and an unwavering belief in human potential. She traces some of those early influences to her time at Waynflete, where an outside-the-box learning environment and a values-driven mission gave her the confidence to pursue meaningful change on her own terms.