One way that Claire DeMatteis accomplishes so much is that she gets up at 4 a.m. Another is her sense of order. “I’m probably one of the most disciplined people that you ever met,” she said. “I’m very much a planner.”

In January, she became secretary of the Delaware Department of Human Resources. That’s on top of serving on the boards of Nemours and the University of Delaware. She’s also an adjunct professor at UD, and she made time to care for her mother for 18 months in her Wilmington home before she passed on this winter.