In 1969, Darcy was asked to come to Chicago to work at Gateway Foundation, one of six new drug treatment initiatives funded by the Illinois Department of Mental Health and organized under the auspices of the University of Chicago's Department of Psychiatry. In 1985, the Board of Directors appointed Darcy to President and CEO after serving Gateway Foundation in the positions of Treatment Center Director, Area Director, Program Director and Executive Director. Darcy began his career in 1967 working in Greenwich Village in New York as an outreach worker helping teens and young adults who were abusing alcohol and other drugs find their way out of addiction.