Peter Barbuto, the New President/CEO of the Gavin Foundation

Over this last weekend, an important management change occurred in South Boston. Friday, was the last day that John McGahan served as the long-time leader of the Gavin Foundation. Peter Barbuto formally assumed the position of Gavin Foundation’s President and CEO. The changeover was marked with a breakfast at the Gavin’s Devine Center.

Obviously, John and Peter’s transition was “in process” for a considerable time before this weekend – they spent more than full time for several weeks making sure their transition was both smooth and successful. For more than 30 years, John had been an excellent leader of the Gavin Foundation, with highly significant accomplishments in programs devoted to recovery from substance abuse. Peter brings significant knowledge and past experience in recovery work to the CEO/ President’s position, including a few years actually employed by the Gavin Foundation.

It is with a feeling of great confidence that we welcome Peter to the Gavin leadership position, while also sincerely thanking John for his many career successes in the field of recovery.

Peter himself has deep local roots – he was born and brought up in Savin Hill. He’s the son of Peter Barbuto (Senior), who worked in USPS management on Columbia Point, and Kathleen “DeDe” Daly Barbuto. Kathleen taught Kindergarten for 30 years at Gate of Heaven School and is now a Teacher’s Aide three days a week at the South Boston Catholic Academy. Peter (Junior) has an older brother, Conal, and a younger brother, James. He is married to Jana (Kalapinski) Barbuto from Marshfield. They now live in Hanover and have two young daughters – Josie (age 7) and Kaia (age 5). Both of their girls are in Hanover’s public grade school. Jana is a professional woman, who works in Sales Management for FluidEdge Consulting, a provider of various IT services, especially to health care organizations.

Peter attended B.C. High in the 1990s, and then went on to earn a BA degree in Political Science at Merrimack College in 2002. In both schools, he was the Captain of their Varsity Baseball Teams; he maintains his ongoing interest in sports, which nowadays includes golf. During his adult life, he has gained extensive experience in the field of recovery. Back in 2006, he enrolled himself in the Gavin House on Fourth Street. After completing the Gavin’s program, he went on to serve as Gavin’s Program Manager for three years in the Cushing House Recovery Center for Boys on Old Colony Boulevard. For two years after that, he worked for the South Boston Collaborative Center as an Outreach Coordinator.

From 2012 until 2017, Peter was employed by American Addiction Centers, first as a Treatment Consultant and then as a Regional Director of Business Development. In 2017 at Recovery Centers of America, he took on the position of Vice President of Business Development, responsible for their Sales Management teams. He was promoted to Senior Vice President of Business Development and Marketing before “going full circle” (as Peter terms it) and returning to lead the Gavin Foundation as its CEO and President.

Peter views his new job at the Gavin as a challenge, of course, as well as its being a great job for local guy “returning home” – a feeling he really welcomes. He and John McGahan intentionally aimed their changeover to take place at this time because the Gavin Foundation’s projects and problem resolutions are going smoothly right now. This gives Peter some time for “relationship building” and doing that “in person”. He sees this as his most important first step. He smiles when he admits there won’t be much time for any golf this year.

The Gavin Foundation has become a larger recovery operation than ever – it has four Houses, the Devine Center, a detox unit in Quincy, along with offices in Quincy, New Bedford and Worcester. While we were talking, Peter made a quick guess that Gavin provided approximately 5,000 people with recovery services last year. And given the confidential nature of what the Gavin Foundation does, that number might be much larger than 5,000. If someone you know asks about getting in touch with the Gavin Foundation, their website is www.gavinfoundation. org. Their central phone number is 617-268-5000.

Peter Barbuto has his work cut out for him. It’s important to our community. We wish him well!