Meet Perry Mueller
Disabilities Specialist,
Community Care

Community Care’s new disability specialist Perry Mueller brings decades of expertise to his role. He now provides guidance to Community Care’s programs that serve adults with physical and developmental disabilities.

A veteran caseworker and administrator, Mueller has more than 30 years experience in both working with individual clients and with program management. He has consulted state, county and local governments in developing policy and has also been a leading advocate for people with disabilities.

Perry is pleased to serve through Community Care, where he is helping “build a future that offers people more independence, more positive experiences, more contact with medical professionals and preventive care.”

What’s happening today as Community Care assumes responsibility from the counties for managing and providing long-term care services for low-income seniors and adults with disabilities is a “quantum leap in the right direction,” says Mueller. “For so many years, young adults who have had wonderful, expensive educational experiences would graduate from school to go on a county waiting list for services they need to be independent. Mothers had to quit their jobs to stay home and care for their adult children. Community Care is helping change that by eliminating the waiting list for services.” In addition, Community Care teams include a nurse and sometimes other medical personnel who have direct involvement with program participants. “People will get better care as a result,” he says.

Mueller gained much of his vast experience through a wide variety of positions at Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin. After graduating with a master’s degree in educational psychology, Mueller got a job with Goodwill as an instructor on the loading docks. He trained and coached young men about how to get and keep a job. He expected to work there for a year, then open his own clinic. Instead, he worked at Goodwill for more than 30 years.

At Goodwill, Mueller served as a case manager and a supervisor of case managers. He managed programs, counselor teams and developed training. He also consulted on the building of some HUD apartments. “My role continued to evolve and took so many forms, it is difficult to count them all,” says Mueller.

Following three decades of service to Goodwill, Mueller served as a vocational consultant to the state’s Southern Wisconsin Center in Union Grove. There he provided vocational consulting for programs that served people with disabilities before moving to his current position at Community Care earlier this year.

All the while, Mueller served on various Milwaukee County committees addressing issues related to people with disabilities. He also served on numerous boards, including Community Care’s, which he resigned from when he became an employee.

Mueller played key roles in several boards. He served as chair of the Milwaukee Area Developmental Disability Service Agencies (MADDSA) for more than 20 years and is currently president of ARC Wisconsin Board.