Trainer Bios

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Maria Affinito

Maria Affinito, MSW brings over 12 years of experience working with families and children in the foster care system. She has worked as a child welfare worker, responding to allegations of child abuse while also working with families towards reunification. Most recently, she is a supervisor leading protocol development and continuous quality improvement for a public agency. She is a trained forensic interviewer and applies SOP principles to her practice as a worker and supervisor. She contributes to the next generation of child welfare workers by serving as an adjunct professor for Cal State East Bay, and a field work instructor for interns seeking a career in child welfare. 

Suzanne Alfandari

Suzanne D. Alfandari, M.S, LMFT, is an experienced and passionate Motivational Interviewing (MI) MINT Certified Trainer and member of the International Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). Suzanne trains MI with University of California Davis Extension, California University of Fresno-Bay Area Academy, universities, schools, hospitals, organizations, counties, and agencies including all categories of staff, from those who work with low income and challenged families to providers who support first responders with PTSD. In addition to her ongoing individual counseling private practice, she had been on staff for over 15-years at Marin County Community Mental Health. There she worked with families, taught MI to psychology interns, and helped implement an MI-informed consultation style for staff. Suzanne, a Certified Expert EFT Tapping Practitioner, trains staff using EFT Tapping and has served as a Marin County Office of Emergency Services Stress Manager for 20 years. She holds a MS in Counseling Psychology Specialization: Marriage, Family and Child Counseling, from Dominican University, San Rafael, California, and a BS from the State University of New York College at Oneonta, New York

Amy R. Baker
Amy Baker is a Child Welfare consultant specializing in Team Decision Making, organizational development, system change, facilitation skills and coaching. While current clients include the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Child Welfare Strategy Group and NationalCouncil onCrime and Delinquency Children's ResearchCenter, she has worked with public child welfare agencies across the country. In her work, Amy draws on over 20 years of work in human services, program development and quality assurance to help child welfare agencies improve their practice with children and families.
Before consulting, Amy worked in child welfare in New York City, including roles as Chief of Staff to the Commissioner ofNew York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), Chief of Staff of ACS’s Division of Quality Assurance, andProgram Associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.Amy has also served as Director of Program Evaluation for Lower Manhattan’s University Settlement House and as a Teen Violence Prevention Coordinator at House of Ruth in Claremont, CA.
Amy holds a MSW and a MPA from Columbia University and earned her BA in Sociology from the University of Redlands.She also earned a coaching certification from the Hudson Institute, and provides leadership coaching to individual clients from nonprofit and private sectors.
Amy, her husband, Tom, their daughter, Lily, and son, Reese live in San Francisco where they enjoy spending as much family time outdoors as possible.

Aaron Blackham

Aaron Blackham has over 10 years' direct practice experience working with youth, families, and adults in various settings including child welfare and juvenile justice. He also has over 10 years teaching and training experience, having taught classes and trained workshops on over a dozen social work topics. Aaron's professional passion is improving outcomes through the use of motivational interviewing. He has presented, trained, coached, and evaluated motivational interviewing practice at organizations, workshops, classes, and conferences to thousands of professionals and students in child welfare, health care, education, behavioral health, and criminal justice/legal professions. Aaron is an avid outdoor explorer. He practices permaculture and eats something he has grown from his garden every day (when he is not out on the road or the trail).

Roger Coffman 

Roger Coffman, is a Senior Deputy County Counsel for Placer County.  He has also served as a deputy county counsel in Tulare and El Dorado Counties.  While in Tulare County Roger worked for a time on the civil litigation team and representing the county on several civil rights matters in federal court.  Roger has 30 years of experience representing child protective services in dependency cases. Roger has been an instructor with the UC Davis Center for Human Services since 1989 and an instructor for the Bay Area and Central California Social Worker Training Academies since 2011.

Joey Cordero

Joey S. Cordero is a father that has successfully re-unified with his daughter through the child welfare system in San Francisco. Inspired to help others,he began to tell his story of re-unification from emergency response unit meetingsto fatherhood trainingsand conferences through-outCalifornia.He has developed a fatherhood group that helps fathers heal from trauma and identify behaviorsthat put their child at risk. He is now the chair of the San Francisco Fatherhood Initiative Workgroup which has brought change to the way fathers are recognized andengaged in the child welfaresystem. As Joey gets close to a decade of providing direct services to families and fathers in San Francisco he is enthused to share his work and learn more about how he can help other communities with fatherhood engagement.

Peter Dahlin, MS

Peter Dahlin is a private consultant, based out of Northern California, providing coaching, organizational development, training, and curriculum development services to a variety of organizations throughout the country. He is passionate about integrating creativity and fun in solving organizational challenges. He has created and taught social worker, supervisor, manager, executive, mentor/coach and trainer courses throughout the country and has been a regularly-invited presenter to regional and national conferences. His time is split between curriculum development, training delivery and coaching—all within child welfare.
His style is energetic and engaging and he infuses appropriate issues of cultural humility and strong “transfer of learning” opportunities throughout all of his trainings and coaching. He strives for the same level of engagement and energy in virtual trainings, as well!
Peter is the former Director of a twelve-county regional training Academy providing training, consultation, and organizational development services in the San Francisco Bay Area. He worked for San Francisco County for nearly ten years, in roles as a social worker, supervisor and manager. In his last County position, he managed $25 million of contracts with community providers. He served as the Chair for the Annual West Coast Child Welfare Trainer’s Conference for six years, and has over 30 years of direct service, supervision, training and management experience in human services.
His family has volunteered to host high school exchange students for over ten years, and was one of the first families in Butte County to be certified as a Resource Family. They have fostered several teens, and their son when he was 15. Peter’s interests include gardening, bicycling, swimming and spending time with his dogs &cats… and chickens & honeybees—all of which are mutually exclusive activities!

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Sylvia Deporto 

Sylvia is a California native spending most of her life in the Southern California area. Sylvia attended the University of California at Riverside where she received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and then California State University at San Bernardino where she received her Masters’ degree in Counseling and Education.

Sylvia began her child welfare career as a caseworker in El Paso County, Colorado, then moved on to do casework for Home and Community Based Services, a program that provided services to elderly, blind and disabled adults as an alternative to nursing home care. She then returned to California and worked with developmentally delayed children ages 0-5 and their families through the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. Sylvia then returned to her first love, child welfare, working for Riverside county children’s services for 21 years where she began as a caseworker and held positions as a supervisor, trainer, manager, deputy director and assistant director all in children’s services. After five years as the assistant director leading Riverside county child welfare she moved to the San Francisco Bay area to be the director of child welfare in the city/county of San Francisco where she spent a little over five years. Having retired last August Sylvia is now a consultant and trainer with a focus on the areas of leadership development and coaching, and provides training and consulting on the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Bridget Early

Bridget Early, LCSW, has worked in a variety of settings serving children and youth.  She worked at a group home for teen moms who were referred from CWS and Juvenile justice systems, at a Level 14 residential group home, and worked for SF County CWS in long term placement and ER (overnights).  Additionally, Bridget has worked at a San Francisco middle school. 

Samyalisa Enright

Samyalisa Enright is the Evaluation Specialist and joined the Bay Area Academy in 2016. Her previous 10+ years of experience in social service roles have included Early Intervention Specialist, Family Advocate, Behavioral Skills Specialist, and FFA Social Worker. Samyalisa is currently a 3rd year doctoral student in an Educational Leadership program and studies the implications of leaders’ views and attitudes on policy and practice in early childhood settings. She is passionate about working with data to inform workforce development, transformation, and quality improvement within social services.

María Escobar‐Bordyn

María Escobar‐Bordyn brings extensive experience coaching and advising executives and organizations in human performance, leadership, and communication. A highly capable executive coach and facilitator, she understands the relationship between individual and organization success. Adept at understanding diverse organizational cultures and business models, she brings a thoughtful, pragmatic, and outcome‐based approach to her work. In her various roles in private as well as global human performance consulting firms, María has presented to and has worked with leaders and teams, and coached executives in diverse industries and company sizes, as well as nonprofits in the medical, arts, and social services arenas. Core to her work is Conversational Intelligence® (C‐IQ), a neuroscience‐based methodology that transforms conversations and relationships. Raised bi‐culturally, and the parent/guardian of neuro‐diverse children, she has a sensitivity to. And understanding of, the complexities and nuances of communicating and conversing in challenging or difficult situations. Currently, María is President of the CreatingWE® Institute, an organization dedicated to bringing Conversational Intelligence to the world.

Antoinette Fabela

Antoinette Fabela lives in Northern California where she works as a professional educator, advocate, counselor and consultant.  She earned a Bachelor Degree in Early Childhood Education at California State University in Sacramento and a Master Degree in Counseling Psychology at National University also in Sacramento.  Antoinette was an educator for twenty years, in Southern California, developing curriculum and instructing students from Pre-k to high school. This included seven years as a sole proprietor of a private school, her appointment as a School Board Trustee, for the Garvey School District and a board member for the Southern California Association for the Education of Young Children. 

After relocating to Northern California,  Antoinette worked as a certified domestic violence counselor, serving children and their mothers who were sheltered at WEAVE Inc. She then worked as a Social Worker in Child Welfare for Placer County for fifteen years where she received extensive training in Juvenile Court Dependency, forensic investigations, mental health and the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).  She became specialized in serving the Latino and Native American populations and after ICWA training with Tribal Star, through the Academy for Professional Excellence, she was assigned as the Native services social worker and appointed as Chair of the Auburn Big Time – Pow Wow Committee through Placer County and Sierra Native Alliance.                                                   

Michelle Findley

Michelle N. Findley is currently a Social Work Training Specialist in Santa Clara County. Previous to this position, Michelle Findley was employed with Alameda County Social Services Agency,Department of Children & Family Services for 12 years. While working in Alameda County, Michelle gained a vast amount of experience in direct service,supporting children & families as a Child Welfare Worker in programs including: Informal Family Maintenance, Family Maintenance, Dependency Investigations and other specialized units. Furthering professional growth, Michelle spent about 6 years as a Child Welfare Supervisor supporting, developing, and coaching Child Welfare staff. Michelle was born & raised in the Bay Area and has both a Master and a Bachelor Degree in Social Work. Michelle has a passion for helping coach and develop Child Welfare Workers, Supervisors and Managers. Michelle is dedicated to supporting the evolutionand innovation of new strategies, concepts, and,ideas that are targeted to improveoutcomes for families and children who are involved in the Child Welfare System.

Aprille Flint-Gerner

Aprille Flint-Gerner, MSW is currently the Oregon DHS CW Deputy Director over Equity, Training, Workforce Development. She has over 25 years of experience with the public sector and has specialized in workforce and adaptive leadership development, community and cross-system engagement, technical assistance and implementation support and coaching to leaders in various private and public sector settings. She is considered an expert in many promising practice and equity frameworks in child welfare and human services having worked in various systems in both California and Nevada. With a strong commitment to promoting equity and inclusion and modeling cultural humility, and an awareness of how healthy relationships can shift organizational culture, she has helped countless leaders and organizations work towards transformation of the human service workforce.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies and a Masters of Social Work, from San Jose State University in San Jose, CA. Aprille was recently published in the Translational Behavioral Medicine journal on her work with engaging community and Tribal partners in practice and system improvement efforts.  Aprille is very active with several initiatives aimed at eliminating disparate outcomes for youth most impacted by the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in multiple states, and most recently worked on practice and system-improvement efforts in Nevada, as faculty at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and on several Federal and statewide implementation projects with the Children’s Bureau, California Department of Social Services and various counties in California.

Laurie Fortin

Laurie Fortin, LCSW, has been a trainer for the Public Child Welfare Training Academy (PCWTA) since 1999. She began her social work career as a Protective Services Worker with San Diego Child Welfare Services in 1989. Due to her caseload of sexually abused adolescents and volunteer work with a treatment program for sexually abused girls, Ms. Fortin found her passion. She went on to specialize in the area of child sexual abuse for the next 25 years in various capacities, environments, and populations. The first 10 years were spent working with sexual offenders providing assessment, treatment, and case management services. The remainder of Ms. Fortin’s years were spent working with alleged child victims/witnesses and adult victims/witnesses with disabilities, as a Forensic Interviewer at San Diego’s Child Advocacy Center, the Chadwick Center. In addition to conducting nearly 3,000 forensic interviews, Ms. Fortin served as Supervisor of the program and Coordinator of the County’s Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT). She was responsible for the facilitation and coordination of MDT Management meetings and MDT County trainings. Ms. Fortin has been qualified as an expert witness in the area of child sexual abuse in military, juvenile, family, and criminal court proceedings, as well as for the Attorney General’s Office, and civil court proceedings. Likewise, Ms. Fortin has developed training curriculum and delivered trainings in the area of child sexual abuse, trauma, and investigative interviewing at the local, state, and national level. She has served as a consultant and mentor to students, practitioners, and professionals in the area of child sexual abuse.

Ms. Fortin is currently working as a full-time employee for PCWTA as a Practice Consultant/Coach/Trainer, where she provides workforce development and support to Child Welfare staff in providing best practice with children and families. Likewise, she remains involved in conducting forensic interviews and court testimony in sexual abuse cases.

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Trudi Frazel 

Trudi Frazel (they/them), MSW, served in child welfare for 10 years: as a social worker in Emergency Response, Dependency Investigations, and Continuing Services, and as a supervisor in Emergency Response, Hotline, and Differential Response. Since 2016, Trudi has been training, coaching, consulting, and developing customized curricula in multiple jurisdictions in the areas of executive leadership, organizational culture, and racial equity and inclusion. Trudi is the developer of the Supervisory Frameworks for Contra Costa and Napa counties, which are skills-based, multi-day training programs for supervisors in child welfare. Trudi has been a leader in developing and writing the Alameda County Equity and Inclusion Fellowship and the Bay Area Academy’s Regional Equity and Inclusion series; both are advanced trainings in anti-racist and anti-oppressive skills, tools, and practices. These multi-day series examine and seek to disrupt individual and organizational behaviors that perpetuate institutional racism and structural oppression.

Melinda Frey

Melinda Frey is an attorney, who for 18 years, practiced as a deputy county counsel forContra Costa and Alameda County, exclusively in the area of child welfare law. She has extensive knowledge of all aspects of the child welfare process, having handled hundreds of cases in the juvenile court and on appeal. She has also provided training to child welfare workers.Prior to working for county counsel, Ms. Frey, was in private practice with a focus primarily in family law, and also in the area of special education. Before, receiving a law degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, Ms. Frey obtained a Masters degree in education from the Harvard School of Education and aBachelor of Science degree in Education from Buffalo State College.

Darryn Green 

Darryn Green is a child welfare training consultant living in San Francisco, California. He specializes in topics related to working with transition age youth (TAY) and emerging adults impacted by systems of care.  He has over fifteen-year experience working with organizations that empower youth to develop leadership and advocacy skills to improve the systems they are impacted by.  He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies with a minor in Counseling and a Conflict Resolution Certificate from San Francisco State University awarded 2019.
Darryn is a former foster youth that has been working in collaboration with youth serving professionals in the nonprofit and child welfare system for over half of his life as an advocate, educator/trainer and mentor. In 2005, he was recruited to join the Y.O.U.T.H. training project where he helped to deliver trainings throughout California to child welfare workers and supervisors on better ways to work with TAY.  He shares his experiences in care alongside ten other LGBTQ youth in the digital story series titled, “Breaking the Silence” (2005).
In 2008, Darryn joined the Bay Area Academy co-coordinating advanced trainings with the San Francisco Training Project, while also co-facilitating the induction training series for new Foster/Adoptive parents for San Francisco Human Service Agency, before leaving the organization in 2012 to become an independent training consultant.
Darryn currently serves on the board of directors of Youth In Mind, a youth led organization dedicated to improving the lives of young people impacted by the mental health system through education, advocacy and collaboration. He is also a master trainer with the Human Rights Campaign's All Children—All Families national training project helping child welfare agencies promote more LGBTQ inclusive policies and affirming practices.
Training Topics include but not limited to: LGBTQI2s/Queer Issues, Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE), Positive Youth Development, Cultural Humility, Facilitation & Coaching, Conflict Resolution and Team Building

Marcy Hara 

Marcy Hara has worked in public child welfare since 2000. She has provided case management and support to children and families dealing with child abuse and neglect as a direct service social worker in continuing services and dependency investigations/court units as well as supervised a unit of emergency response social workers. Ms. Hara most recently supervised the child welfare staff development department in Contra Costa County, providing supervision and training to newly hired social workers and MSW interns. Ms. Hara has been training on many different child welfare topics since 2008 and is passionate about ensuring that child welfare social workers across the state receive quality and relevant training to adequately tackle the challenges of this difficult but rewarding work. Ms. Hara currently works for the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC) as the Director of the Child Welfare In-service Training Program where she has the opportunity to support and influence curriculum development for the child welfare workforce across California. 

Kenneth V. Hardy, Ph.D.

Dr. Kenneth V. Hardy is a Clinical and Organizational Consultant at the Eikenberg Institute for Relationships in New York, NY where he also serves as Director. He provides Racially Focused Trauma Informed training, executive coaching, and consultation to a diverse network of individuals and organizations throughout the United States and abroad. He is a former Professor of Family Therapy at both Drexel University in Philadelphia, and Syracuse University in New York, and has also served as the Director of Children, Families, and Trauma at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York, NY.

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Hadar Hartshorn, MSW 

Hadar Hartshorn MSW has been working with children and families involved in the child welfare system for the past 15 years. Since 2009, Mr. Hartshorn has worked for Marin County in the Emergency Response investigations unit. Raised in the Middle East, and with a history of community organizing in Nicaragua, and working with children caught in the armed Maoist conflict in Nepal, Mr. Hartshorn brings a distinct cultural perspective to his work and classroom. 

Evelyn Hengeveld Bidmon 

Extensive experience in leading processes and people in the field of human services, in both the public and private non-profit sectors. Passionate about maximizing potential in teams or group of individuals. Proven record of leading teams to successful outcomes, and improving efficiency and productivity. Strong analytic and intuitive abilities. Highly effective in communicating with executive and senior management, supervisory and line level staff, constituents and community stakeholders. Outstanding interpersonal, presentation, and facilitation skills. Responsive and flexible in addressing challenges and achieving results. Enthusiastic and skilled in collaboration.  

Holliedayle Hertweck 

Holliedayle Hertweck has a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from St Mary’s College. She has worked in the Public Child Welfare for 23 years. She is currently the Supervisor over the Contra Costa Adoptions program. She has been training on Child Welfare subjects for over 18 years. She currently trains a couple of topics for Core 3.0, the public child welfare data system CWS/CMS, Resource Family Approval required trainings for applicants, Mandated Reporter trainings, Concurrent Planning for Child Welfare staff as well as Care providers, Adoptions, and Court.  Ms. Hertweck has a passion for Child Welfare and believes that training is one way she can improve the lives of those impacted by the system.  

Olisha Hodges, ASW 

Has 10 years of child welfare experience in multiple program areas including: Family Maintenance and Reunification, Emergency Response, Therapeutic Foster Care and TDM/CFT Facilitation.  She is certified as a Triple P provider and has taught positive parenting education courses for over 1 year to parents involved in child welfare. She has 8 years of training design and delivery.   She is a Bay Area Academy Staff and field-based trainer for Santa Cruz county.

Virginia Huff

My approach strives to assist individuals with improving their quality of life and promoting lasting wellbeing, utilizing a variety of therapeutic techniques.

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker through the Board of Behavioral Science in California. My educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from San Francisco State University, and a master’s degree in Social Work from Sacramento State University. 

 My experience entails nearly 15 years of working closely with youth and families involved in the juvenile dependency and the child welfare systems; including working with at-risk youth, abused children and their families, resource families,  juvenile sex offenders and with wrap-around services to help prevent the youth from being removed from the home.  I worked in the criminal justice field for over ten years as a juvenile probation officer, and close to four years as a Child Protective Social Worker.  I have been an adjunct profession in the area of Social and Behavior for over four years.  Additionally, I have worked in the medical arena as a Medical Social Worker, working with patients and families in the areas of providing community resources, loss and grief, transitions, and brief intervention therapies.

 I am trained, and have practiced a variety of techniques related to healing from trauma, creating insight and change, building interpersonal and social skills, promoting healing relationships, facilitating group therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, functional family therapy, and brief strength-based and solution-focused interventions (to name a few).  I regularly participate in advanced trainings to enhance my skill set and ensure I am staying current on effective modalities.  

 Additional areas include:
Peer Support of first responders: Parent Project; Girls Circle Group; Teaching; Consulting; using a trauma-informed approach; secondary and vicarious trauma; grief; and Pre-Service Resource Family training; trauma and youth’s behaviors.

Jenny Hundemer, LCSW 

Is a Title IV-E graduate and worked for over a decade as a Child Welfare social worker and training supervisor for Santa Cruz County.  She was the Title IV-E Field Instruction Coordinator and a Faculty Field Liaison for San Jose State University.  Currently, Jenny provides Resource Parent training and support to foster, kinship, and adoptive parents as well as conducts community trainings on Child Abuse and Neglect awareness and reporting for the local Children’s Network. 

Jill Jacobs 

Jill brings over 35 years of experience in multi-cultural community based health and social services organizations. She has a Masters degree in Health Services Administration, as well as extensive experience in fiscal management, human resources,  program development, strategic planning and public policy advocacy. She has been the Executive Director of Family Builders since 1996, and has developed a program model that is responsive to the needs of children and youth needing permanent families.  Jill is a national leader and advocate on issues affecting LGBT adoptive families and LGBTQ youth in foster care.   She has written several articles, published in child welfare journals regarding LGBTQ youth and families.  Jill has created innovative programs to meet the needs of underserved and disenfranchised children and youth; including services for older youth, believing no child should leave the foster care system without a permanent family.   Jill is the mother of two children, via adoption. 

Veronica Piper Jefferson, MSW, ASW

Veronica has worked in Child Welfare for over 20 years.  She has worked as a line worker, supervisor and manager and in three different Northern California counties. Veronica is a Trainer/Consultant for the Bay Area Training Academy and Northern Training Academy. Additionally, she is a Safety-Organized Practice Coach for Napa, Sonoma and San Francisco counties.  

Robert (Robin) Jenkins

Associate Director and Advanced Implementation Specialist with the Impact Center at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute -- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Dr. Jenkins is a Principal Investigator partnering with the Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice and other experts to improve local supervision systems for juvenile and criminal justice-involved youth in selected sites across the country; the North Carolina Child Behavioral Health Services Team to strengthen family, youth and agency outcomes in behavioral health residential treatment centers in North Carolina and scaling an evidence-based parenting support intervention (Triple P) in North and South Carolina. Dr. Jenkins is working in California on a statewide scaling project to install and support a child welfare Core Practice Model supporting policymakers, administrators, funders, regional intermediary organizations and local county child welfare directors as implementation proceeds.

Dr. Jenkins has a myriad of work, volunteer, leadership and advocacy experiences in behavioral health, applied implementation activities, prevention science, criminal/juvenile justice, child welfare systems, substance abuse interventions, nonprofit development and management, state government leadership as well as full-time faculty and adjunct teaching at the collegiate level (undergraduate and graduate in behavioral sciences and juvenile/criminal justice).

Dr. Jenkins has held national leadership roles as the Coalition of Juvenile Justice's Chair, a member of the National Juvenile Justice Network's Executive Committee, the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice (OJJDP), and governor appointed positions in North Carolina on the North Carolina Governors Crime Commission, State Advisory Group (on Juvenile Justice) Chair. He has served on several other state and local boards and commissions. A former Chief Deputy Secretary in the NC Dept of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and Deputy Director in the NC Dept of Public Safety-Division of Juvenile Justice, Dr. Jenkins co-led large scale systems involving the full continuum of prevention, intervention and post-release juvenile justice resources in North Carolina.

Marc Q. Jones  “Coach Q” 

Marc Q. Jones inspires transformational change wherever he goes, by focusing on making the intangibles of effective leadership tangible.  Through his engaging, common sense approach, Marc Q. Jones’ message on leadership is both relevant and relatable to leaders across various disciplines.  

Marc firmly believes in the power of mentoring, and is very proud to have been mentored by two legendary Hall of Fame coaches - NBA coach Chuck Daly and renowned boxing trainer, Eddie Futch, who masterfully trained 4 of the 5 men who beat Muhammed Ali.  When he is not traveling the country doing speaking engagements, Marc travels with the Fresno State Men’s basketball team for whom he is the color analyst for ESPN radio. 

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Deutron Kebebew 

Deutron Kebebew has worked in local non-profit agencies in Santa Cruz for the last 9 years in various capacities to help nurture and develop unique programs to assist families, youth and children in the community. Deutron is currently the Program Director for PAP¡S, Supporting Father Involvement, a clinical state-wide research project focusing on positive father involvement and co-parenting. Deutron has a B.S in Electrical Engineering from UC Santa Cruz. Deutron is a past President of the Board for California Youth Connection and is a current Board member for Smith Renaissance Society.  

Suzanne Kiesz

Suzanne Kiesz, LCSW has 23 years experience working in Child Welfare Services in El Dorado, Sacramento and Solano Counties.   She has worked as a case manager and investigator in Emergency Response and the Adoption and Guardianship Programs for nine years.  As a Child Welfare Supervisor, she has supervised the Adoption and Guardianship Programs for a total of ten years and served for four years as a Staff Development and Training Coordinator.  Ms. Kiesz established the initial staff training program for Solano County for new social workers in 2006. Her passion for work with children and families is in the area of permanency with a focus on developing the knowledge and skills of caregivers (foster, guardians, and adoptive parents) who are caring for children with special needs and preparing families for long term and permanent care and commitment to children.  She is dedicated to the ongoing training and professional development of social work staff toward ongoing knowledge of practice techniques and developing specialized clinical skills to support children and caregivers as they prepare for permanent care of children.    She has been regularly involved in training of foster and adoptive parents, RFA training, CASA Volunteer training, Title IV-E Graduate Interns and ongoing staff training.  Coaching and mentoring of professional staff and development of Resources are key tools that are used in Ms. Kiesz’s style of training.

Ms. Kiesz has an undergraduate background in psychology and was a Title IV-E recipient during her Master of Social Work program.  She is a licensed clinician and recently retired form public service in 2018 in order to focus on providing direct treatment to children and families.  Currently, she is in private therapy practice specializing in trauma treatment and in support of post permanency adoptive and guardianship families.

Gloria King 

Gloria King is the former Executive Director of Black Adoption Placement and Research Center, a private non-profit Foster Family Agency that served both Adoptive and Foster Care Children and Families in 14 Northern California Counties. She earned her Masters’ Degree in Clinical Psychology with a Minor in Speech Communications from Cal-State Hayward, University. Gloria served in the Director role for 25 years.  She joined the Bay Area Academy in 2015 as an Independent Contractor facilitating trainings and developed curriculum for “Cultural Humility and the Art of Coaching” and co–wrote curriculum for the “Advanced Art of Coaching”.  In October of 2017 she transitioned to a full time employee, serving first as a Work Force Development Specialist with San Francisco County and is currently serving in the position as Resident Trainer and Coach. In addition, Gloria has presented and facilitated trainings at local, state and national conferences in the specialty areas of Cultural Humility, Targeted Recruitment for Foster and Adoptive Families and building Private/Public Collaborations. She has been a guest lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley-Graduate School of Social Work, published an article in the Child Welfare Journal National Association of Social Workers Specialty Practice Section entitled, “The Face of Adoption and foster Care Has Changed: What About Our Beliefs?” and has also served as a Panelist at Stanford University.  She comes from a family of nine children and in addition to her parents loving their own children, her parents extended their family and opened their home to serve as a Resource Family to other children for over 19 years.  

Barry Knight 

Barry E. Knight has committed his life to helping people reach their maximum potential.  He is a man of faith and family, and maintains a high degree of integrity and commitment to his personal development.  Pastor Knight is the founder of Barry E. Knight Speak, a professional peaking, consulting and performance coaching company.  HE is also the lead pastor of Celebration Worship Church in Morena Valley, CA.  Pastor Knight has been an influential speaker for more than 15 years. 

Beverly Kyer 

Beverly has been a Public Speaker and Educator for more than 30 years with specialties in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; the Trauma Impact on Brain Development, behavior and Learning in Children and Youth, and Compassion Fatigue,  AKA Secondary or Vicarious Trauma.   Beverly has served as the EAP Employee Assistance Program Coordinator, and the Assistant Chief of Social Work Services, Bronx N.Y. Veteran’s Administration Medical Center.  She has served several years working with children and families in the Foster Care system and is a certified Compassion Fatigue Specialist.  Beverly’s mission is to inspire and support recovery, resilience, capacity and determination for all who will help and care for the victimized, traumatized and most vulnerable in society.  Roles in her career include: Trainer for Seneca Center and Family Finding, Readjustment Counseling Therapist, Psychiatric Social Worker, Social Work Field Placement Supervisor, Program Coordinator, Social Work Supervisor, and Grief and Trauma Educator and Consultant.   Beverly’s participatory training style creates an interactive and collaborative learning environment focused towards seeking answers.  

Mark Lapiz

With over 25 years in Human Services, A. Mark Lapiz, MSW, currently serves as a Program Manager III with the County of Santa Clara Social Services Agency - Department of Program Support Research and Evaluation (PSRE). He earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Human Development with a minor in Asian-American Studies from the University of California, Davis in 1994. As a Title IV-E recipient, he earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work from San Jose State University in 1998. From 1992-1996, Mark worked for the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center in Yolo County. Mark served as the only male staff member providing community outreach and prevention services, as well as, therapeutic and advocacy services for children residing with their mother in the Battered Woman’s Shelter program. Soon after receiving his MSW, Mark was hired by the County of Santa Clara Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) where he worked as a Continuing Services Social Worker for over 11 years which included one year as a Supervisor. In 2009, Mark joined PSRE as a member of the Quality Improvement and Enhancement Team (QIET), providing quality assurance and evaluation support to DFCS. Mark’s knowledge and experience with direct service programs provided a strong foundation in the area of qualitative data tool creation and analysis that helped in support and improvement of social work practice. In 2011, Mark and QIET were reassigned to be members of the County of Santa Clara’s California Partners for Permanency (CAPP) Implementation Team. In 2014, Mark was promoted to a Program Manager and became the Santa Clara County CAPP Project Manager. It was through this project where Mark obtained practical experience and application expertise in the areas of System Change and Implementation Science in Child Welfare as he led the implementation of the Child and Family Practice Model for DFCS.

Laurel Laran, MSW

For the past thirty years, I worked with Children and Family Services in San Mateo County. I was employed as a social worker and specialized in Juvenile Law and its application to the families. I served within the Family Maintenance, Family Reunification and Permanent Planning unit for five and a half years, then completed fifteen years in the investigations unit.  My expertise consisted of assessments, risk determination, implementation of recommendations, services, devising case plans, collaborating with school officials, consulting with medical experts in the field of child abuse and complied Juvenile Court Reports, and expert testimony. In 2005, I served as a supervisor overseeing the Family Reunification, Family Maintenance and Permanent Planning Unit in Redwood City for ten years. My role was to mentor, coach, and train a team of social workers in the field specific to Child Welfare and Juvenile Law, in addition to providing support and expertise in court report writing.  I had the opportunity to administratively oversee a team of Psychiatric Social Workers who provided mental health services to the families that we serviced within school settings.  My role was to provide oversight and to ensure appropriate services were implemented. I also had the opportunity to facilitate and become an active member of a monthly Multi-Disciplinary Team that services children from Elementary through Junior High through the Redwood City School District. In addition, my role was to be the liaison between the school district and Children and Family Services.  

 Michael Little 

Michael Little, earned his MSW from UC Berkeley in 2004 and obtained his MPA from CSUEB in 2013.  He has nearly 30 years of experience working with young children and families in the fields of education and child welfare.  He has worked in a variety of Child Welfare programs including Emergency Response, Dependency Investigation, and Family Reunification.  As the lead child welfare trainer for Alameda County Children and Family Services he has trained many CORE class topics; as well as Mandated Reporting, Dependency Procedures, Linkages, Extended Foster Care services, Customer Service Outcomes for Supervisors, and others. He currently supervises Alameda County’s Family Preservation program. 

Emma Ledvina

Emma Ledvina, MSW, is a social work supervisor in Santa Cruz County, supervising the hotline and an investigations unit. She has worked in child welfare for nine years, in Colorado, Texas, and now in Santa Cruz, California.She graduated from Columbia University in 2008, and began her career working as a counselor and lead advocate at a safe house for survivors of domestic violence. She began her child welfare career in 2009 in an ongoing unit in Colorado, then moved to Austin, Texas, and began working in investigations. After ten months as an investigations Senior Social Worker inSanta Cruz County, she promoted to her current role. Emma is passionate about best practices, creating “learning environments,” and improving outcomes for the families that we serve. Outside of work, Emma most enjoys reading, writing, hiking, and camping.

Julie Lenhardt, MSSW

Julie Lenhardt is an expert in Child Welfare with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of the work. Most recently, Juliewas the Program Director over San Francisco Family and Children’s Services Early Intervention Program, managing and directing allof Emergency Response, the Hotline, Voluntary Services, and the 24-hour response After Hours Program.
Julie recently switched gears in her career to work as an individual and group therapist. In the clinical realm, Julie specializes inusing Motivational Interviewing, combined with CBT, DBT, ACT, and other evidence-based therapeutic techniques to help patientsstruggling with ambivalence toward changing behaviors and circumstances that negatively impact their health and wellbeing. Mindfulness and meditation are also core elements to her practice. In addition, Julie works as a trainer, coach, consultant, andexpert witness.
Her areas of expertise include: Safety Organized Practice and Implementation, RED teams and implementation, CACI Hearings and accurate allegation conclusions, Advanced Practices in Emergency Response, CWS/CMS, Motivational Interviewing, Evidence-based practices, Mindfulness and meditation for workers, Trauma-informed interventions, Safe Measures, Coaching for success, and Attachment, Trauma, and Healing.

Regina Louise Kerr Taylor

Regina Louise is an author, permanency advocate, and a highly sought-after speaker who canvasses the country on behalf of foster children; in need of a ‘forever family.’ She is the author of the best-selling memoir, Somebody’s Someone, a story which chronicles her plight through thirty different foster homes, as a ward of the court, while residing at a children’s receiving center located in Northern California. Currently her memoir is being used as recommended reading in Social Work programs throughout the United States. From the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the State Capital, Ms. Louise has voiced the needs of how necessary it truly is that no amount of love you give a child can ever be wasted. The film adaptation of Somebody’s Someone is in development. In 2010 her stage adaptation of her memoir was nominated for two NAACP theatre awards. That same year she was awarded the Angels in Adoption Award for an individual who worked to reduce the number of minority children in foster care by way of adoption. Regina is available for facilitating workshops/trainings/motivational speaking and coaching. 

Training Subjects: Fostering Resilience, Developing and Sustaining Empathy, Vicarious Trauma, Narrative healing, and Multiplying Possibilities 

Manuel Lua 

Manuel Lua has been working with families involved with residential, foster care, probation, and county mental health services for over 12 years. He currently supervises San Joaquin County’s Wraparound services at Stockton VCSS, Family Vision. He is also a consultant with the National Wraparound Initiative, a certified State of California trainer for Wraparound, instructor with the UC Davis Extension, and serves on the State of California Wraparound curriculum development workgroup. Mr. Lua received his BA degree from San Jose State University and his MS in Clinical Psychology. Manuel’s areas of expertise include Wraparound program and staff development, the family finding process and principles, and community and strength based mental health services. He is a co-author of the Victor Family Vision Wraparound manual and has contributed to the State of California Wraparound Curriculum. He has a personal passion for supporting foster children to increase their connections into natural supports, teaching leadership skills to youth and colleagues, and is an avid sports fanatic…Go Bears! 

Luck Pecas Luckey, BA

Luck is a Senior Protective Services Worker, and has worked with Child Welfare Services (CWS), County of San Diego for 17 years. Within CWS, Luck has specialized in Emergency Response (ER), Domestic Violence, Safety-Organized Practice (SOP), and Coaching. Specialty assignments have included: Drug Endangered Child (DEC) program; Created linkage between CWS and San Diego Police domestic violence unit to enhance communication and coordination to best serve families affected by intimate partner violence; After-hours ER response; and SOP Coaching for CWS staff in all programs.

In addition to child welfare work, Luck has completed advanced Domestic Violence (IPV) training in the Safe & Together model via The David Mandel Institute. From this foundation, Luck developed the SOP Domestic Violence Timeline Tool, contracted with Public Child Welfare Training Academy (PCWTA), UC Davis Northern Training Academy and partnered with Children’s Research Center (CRC), a division of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD). In conjunction with CRC, Luck has trained across the United States, and in Canada, on the implementation and integration of Structured Decision Making (SDM), SOP and various domestic violence practice tools to maintain rigor when partnering with families who are victims of IPV.

Luck is gender-queer, a person on the transgender spectrum, who identifies as non-binary. After years of struggle to integrate his/her true gender identity and sexual orientation, Luck transitioned fully into the person, parent and professional he/she had only once hoped for and at times never thought possible. Luck is devoted to advocating for, and supporting, LGBTQ+ children, youth, and caregivers. Luck brings her coaching, training and mentoring skills to child welfare workers, foster parents, and the LGBTQ+ community.

Jessica Mateu-Newsome 

Jessica Mateu-Newsome has worked with the Human Service Agency of San Francisco for 16 years, first as Protective Services Worker, then as a Protective Services Supervisor, and now as a Program Director.  She currently oversees the Family Services and Court Dependency programs.  As a Program Director, she has focused on updating and improving ICWA policies and procedures in SF county.  Some of the changes Jessica has initiated is changing policy so that SF staff need to enroll children who are eligible for membership to their tribes; following the spirit of ICWA, if there is no response within 60 days of notice, the policy states that the staff person must make a phone call to the tribe to inquire about eligibility.  She continues to work with SF Workforce Development units on providing appropriate trainings about providing Notice and other ICWA related topics. 

Christine Mattos 

Christine Mattos, MSOD (Pepperdine University), PCC (International Coach Federation), integrates over twenty years of professional experience in both public and private sector leadership development, organizational effectiveness, professional development and coaching.  In addition to founding a coaching practice to support organizations by coaching individuals and groups in key leadership positions, she has served as a change management and training consultant for a global management consulting firm, consulted about training and development with the public school system, served as the statewide Training Manager for the Child Abuse Prevention Center, served as the first Director of an innovative statewide AmeriCorps project with Head Start programs, served as the Associate Director of Head Start/Early Head Start programs for two California counties, served as the statewide Training Manager for child welfare and probation systems within the California Department of Social Services, and most recently, she served as Chief of Workforce Management and Professional Development for the California Department of Social Services.  Among other academic and service-related accomplishments and achievements, she is credentialed and certified as a professional executive/leadership coach and is skilled as a facilitator.  Through public and private university, state, county and private affiliations, Ms. Mattos currently coaches and supports directors and managers and other leaders with achieving success through her expertise in leadership, organizational development, implementation science and change management. 

Haley Mears 

Haley Mears, MSW, has over 10 years experience working in public child welfare services. She has worked in Intake, Emergency Response, and Ongoing Services units, and has supervised Emergency Response staff and MSW Title IV-E interns. Haley has provided trainings on the topics of Child Abuse Reporting, Best Practice in Child Welfare Investigations, Structured Decision Making, and Safety Organized Practice. Haley also facilitates Family Team Meetings, Administrative Review conferences, and Safety Organized Practice mapping sessions. Haley has experience working with both urban and rural populations, is fully bilingual, and has worked extensively with the Latino community in the Bay Area. 

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Brittanie Mills 

Brittanie Mills has worked for over 18 years in public Child Welfare.  She has worked as a social worker in Continuing Services and Court and has co-supervised the Child Abuse Hotline in Contra Costa County, has supervised the Social Casework Assistants, a Continuing Services Unit, and is currently the Child Welfare Staff Development Supervisor for Contra Costa County.  She enjoyed working with families and challenging them to make positive changes in their lives.  And now she has the privilege of training upcoming social workers and introducing them to the field of public Child Welfare, as well as working with seasoned social workers to grow as practitioners. 

Brittanie is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  She is trained in Motivational Interviewing and Safety Organized Practice.  She is always eager to try out new social work practices, in hopes of enhancing the field. 

Brittanie began training by providing assistance to her colleagues during staff meetings, then was asked to provide trainings to new social workers, about Tips and Tricks for Surviving Public Child Welfare social work.  This training morphed into providing an all day overview training about Continuing Services.  She now continues to create and present trainings to social work staff in Contra Costa County and trains social work staff in local counties, through BAA.  She enjoys helping her colleagues learn, grow, and improve their practice.  She strives to develop strong social workers, capable of maintaining themselves and their clients. 

Matthew Mock 

Dr. Matthew R. Mock, PhD, has been an invited speaker and trainer nationally and internationally receiving special commendations and numerous awards for what he considers to be his “life’s work.”  He also maintains a longstanding private clinical and consulting practice in Berkeley, California. Currently a professor with a university in the Bay Area, he is honored to teach and impart wisdom to the current and next generation of professionals. He has a longstanding career in addressing mental health concerns in communities with a special emphasis on community mental health, multiculturalism and diversity, ethnic families, cultural competence in service delivery, and violence prevention and intervention. He was the Director of the Family, Youth, Children’s and Multicultural Service, City of Berkeley Mental Health Division for twenty years. He went on to serve as the Director for the Center of Multicultural Development with the California Institute for Mental Health, leading initiatives to address mental health disparities, increase cultural competence and social-justice informed work throughout California’s 58 counties.  He was also served as a staff psychologist at a state university for several years. He serves on several boards with special focus on family therapy, school and community mental health, trauma, immigration, multicultural identity, cultural competence, supervision and training.  He has written and engaged audiences extensively in the areas of cultural psychology, community mental health, child and family welfare and social justice. Dr. Mock received his B.A. from Brown University and his Masters and PhD from the California School of Professional Psychology (Berkeley/Alameda/San Francisco). 

Ellen Morrison 

Ellen Morrison, LCSW and professional facilitator embodies a social justice lens in her focus on strengthening relationships and integrating behavioral health services with strategies that interrupt cycles of trauma and oppression.  Well facilitated spaces are one of these strategies and her 15 years of experience teaming with families and training facilitators informs her development and delivery of the Child and Family Teaming curriculum.  With a strong facilitative style, Ellen is committed to creating a constructive climate for learning that balances intellectual and experiential components with modeling facilitation of group dynamics.  Ellen currently works as a therapist and consults with organizations throughout the Bay Area.   

Dr. Gloria Morrow

Dr. Gloria Morrow, the Director of Behavioral Health for UnicareCommunity Health Center, is one of the nation's leading clinical psychologists. Dr. Gloria also serves as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Consultant and she is a Lead Trainer for the CBMCS (California Brief Multicultural Competency Scale) Training Program, which focused on a training curriculum she helped to develop. Dr. Gloria also facilitates a wide range of trainings relevant to cultural humility and cultural competency. She serves as a consultant for The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where Dr. Bernice King serves as the CEO. Dr. Gloria’s work surrounding the role of Spirituality in recovery has gained notoriety with the development of a three-day training and handbook entitled S.A.F.E. (Spirituality and Faith Empowers) to equip the faith communityand mental health professionals to help hurting people. Dr. Gloria is a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator who speaks on a variety of mental health and life skills topics for women and men. Dr. Gloria has appeared as a frequent guest on CNN and has also appeared on MSNBC, NBC4, and Fox11 news and a variety of radio shows, including Stevie Wonder’s KJLH. Dr. Gloria has authored several books, and she recently wrote and published two eBooks, entitled “Unleash the Secret Weapons to Your Success,” and “COVID-19 Maintaining Positive Emotions During Tough Times. Dr. Gloria is the host of a new talk show on Facebook Live, YouTube, and Daily Motion entitled A Brand New Me with Dr. Gloria that airs on Thursdays @ 11am PST. Visit www.abrandnewmewithdrg.com for more information.

Katie Nakasone 

Katie Nakasone has been working with CWS/CMS for over 15 years and for the last 5 years as the Application Trainer Mentor (ATM).  Katie has conducted individual and group CWS/CMS computer trainings since 2009. 

RaQuel Neal 

My career in training and consultation began over 15 years ago with the Santa Clara County Probation Department wherein I was charged with developing and facilitating Parenting classes and evaluating the knowledge and skills gained for the purpose of program enhancements. I later became a Certified Administrator for a level 12 Group Home by the Administrator Certification Section (ACS) of the Community Care Licensing Division, Policy, Training and Certification Branch, Training and Certification Bureau to facilitate trainings ensuring the safety and well-being of the children. After receiving my Master of Social Work degree as a Title IV-E graduate, I worked for four years as a Child Welfare Worker promoting the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families. Currently, I serve as a Staff Development Specialist and Field Advisor in Child Welfare for Alameda County Social Services Agency (SSA) supervising and facilitating Child Welfare Worker Induction Trainings. My responsibilities further include facilitating SSA Annual Compliance Trainings, serving as a member of the Safety Organized Practice Implementation Team, coordinating the Leave for Social Education Program, along with other special projects designed to enhance child welfare practices. My professional work ethics embraces the California Core Practice Model behaviors, and I am dedicated to teaming and collaborating with strengths-based professionals who are committed to offering cultural responsive services that promote the well-being for children and families.  

Stefanie Nieto-Johnson

Stefanie Nieto Johnson , MSW, ACC is a Bilingual Certified Coach, Trainer, and Consultant who specializes in Executive Leadership Coaching, Workforce Development, Facilitation, Training, and Strategic Planning Consulting. Her specific area of expertise is working with leaders around how to effectively communicate, manage conflict, build successful teams, and increase motivation, productivity, and retention. She not only provides individual and group coaching but she also was co- creator of the Art of Coaching training and provides coaching development support to leaders as well as new coaches.
Ms. Nieto Johnson is an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation. She is a certified Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and has her Brain Based Coaching certificate through the Neuro Leadership Institute. She additionally is a Certified Integrative Coach through the Ford Institute of Transformational Training. She received her MSW from the University of California, Berkeley and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Santa Clara University.
Ms. Nieto Johnson additionally has an extensive consulting background facilitating and managing large scale projects including coaching, implementation and training in jurisdictions throughout California, Alaska, Kansas, and Puerto Rico. She has over 12 years of experience as a trainer and has trained such topics as Coaching, Facilitation, Teaming, Safety Organized Practice, Core 3.0, Supervisor Core, Working with Interpreters, and Bias and Assumptions. She has also served as Faculty on the California Dis-proportionality Project. Prior to consulting, she spent 10 years in Public Child Welfare with Santa Clara County working as a Supervisor, Bilingual Facilitator, and Juvenile Court case carrying Social Worker. 

Coaching Approach: My primary objective is to support leaders in achieving their goals, gaining awareness, and unlocking the potential in themselves and their teams. I bring my experience and training in Psychology and Social Work along with knowledge from a number of different coaching modalities and programs. I integrate concepts of Neuroscience into my coaching in areas such as providing feedback, improving performance and decision making, conflict resolution, cultivating a Growth Mindset and balance/self care. I work with leaders to identify and leverage their own specific talents and strengths along with their team’s in order to obtain maximum results. I am committed to supporting leaders transform, increase their impact and influence, and create sustainable change.

William Nguyen  

William Nguyen earned his Ph. D in Clinical Psychology with a focus in Multicultural Psychology from Alliant International University: California School of Professional Psychology. Prior to his work with juvenile dependents, William worked as a clinician at a number of community based organizations, psychiatric hospitals, and agencies serving the mental health needs of communities of color and families in crisis. In addition to his experience as a practitioner, William has served as an adjunct and core professor at Alliant International University, University of San Francisco, and Notre Dame de Namur University teaching myriad courses that range from therapeutic and assessment theory and technique to statistics/research. William has been working in the field of juvenile dependency for approximately 10 years with Alameda County Social Services Agency as a Child Welfare Worker and as a Child Welfare Trainer/Supervisor. William is currently a Program Manager for Swing Shift Intake and Placement at Alameda County DCFS. William has a strong belief that families hold the answers to their success and that we must help families to realize their success and then help them to achieve it.

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Stuart Oppenheim

After receiving a Masters Degree in Philosophy from Northwestern University, Stuart Oppenheim began his career as an AFDC Eligibility Worker in 1973 for the San Francisco County Department of Social Service. During the next 31 years he worked in a broad range of public social service areas at progressive levels of responsibility. Stuart earned his MSW in 1979 while working for the Department of Social Services and worked at every level and in every phase of the Child Welfare program. Stuart began working for San Mateo County in 1988 and after 15 years as the Director of Child and Family Services he retired from county service in March, 2004. In September, 2004, Stuart was named the founding Executive Director of the Child and Family Policy Institute of California, where he currently oversees research, training, education and technical assistance activities that are helping to improve the delivery of human services programs throughout California.

Nazirah Oyenuga 

Nazirah Nichole Oyenuga is a Title IV-E Child Welfare focused, MSW, graduate of California State University, Hayward and also holds a Bachelors Degree from the University of California, at Berkeley in the interdisciplinary fields of Psychology, Sociology, and Education. She has worked in the field of Social Work and Human Services, in the Bay Area over the last sixteen years. Nazirah has been employed with San Mateo County, Children and Family Services Agency  for 10 years and prior to, worked with Alameda County Children’s Assessment Center, from its opening in 2002 until 2006. She has experience as a supervisor and child welfare social worker, in Emergency Response, Hotline Screening, Voluntary Family Maintenance, Family Maintenance, Family Reunification, Permanent Placement, and Non-Minor Dependency.  She has also held a position in Juvenile Court as a child welfare Court Officer and also Supervised Induction Training for new hires. In the last two years her focus has been on training and coaching new social workers in the office and in the field. She has also taken a large part in training second year Title-IV-E interns and in the past, provided parenting education to parents involved with the child welfare system. Nazirah is passionate about paying attention to adult learning styles and providing social workers with tools to do their jobs, while also focusing on engagement of families, critical thinking, and identifying child safety.   Nazirah resides in the East Bay Area, where she enjoys spending time with her three daughters and engaging in various outdoor activities. 

Alberto Palomo 

Mr. Palomo has worked in Child Welfare since 2006, and currently works for Napa County Health & Human Services as an application trainer and system administrator for CWS/CMS, CAT, and SafeMeasures.  Prior to his current position, Mr. Palomo worked as a CPS Social Worker for Fresno and Napa Counties, including assignments in Intake/ER and Ongoing Case Management.  

Avni Panchal

Avni Panchal earned her MSW from UC Berkeley in 2011 and has her Pupil Personnel Service Credential (PPSC) and LCSW. She was a Title IV-E recipient and has worked in Child Welfare for over 13years. She has worked in variety of Child Welfare Programs including Emergency Response, Dependency Investigations, Independent Living Program and Adoptions in both Solano and Alameda County. She currently works as a Staff Development Specialist and FieldAdvisor in Child Welfare for Alameda County Social Services Agency (SSA) supervising and facilitating Child Welfare Worker Induction Trainings. Along with this, she facilitates Annual Compliance trainings for SSA and works on special projects such as providing training on Sexual Orientation Gender Identity Expression (SOGIE). She is dedicated to enhance learning of Child Welfare workers by providing strength-based and culturally responsive learning environment.

James Paulsen

James Paulsen, LCSW was a Family and Probate Court services and operations manager for Superior Court of California, Contra Costa County, from October 2008 until October of 2020. His duties included managing the family law mediation team and probate investigations. Prior to his work with the Court, he spent fifteen years in public child welfare as a social worker, supervisor, trainer and grant coordinator. Ms. Paulsen was one of the first social workers trained as a Family Group Conference facilitator in Santa Clara County and later supervised Contra Costa Children and Family Services’ Team Decision Making program. He has been a member of numerous program implementation teams including Wraparound, Comprehensive Assessments for Positive Outcomes (CAPFO), Team Decision Making and Laura’s Law: Assisted Outpatient Treatment. Mr. Paulsen has been a presenter for the California Beyond the Bench Conference, California Family Law Institute, California Judicial Council’s Center for Families, Children and
the Courts, the State Bar of California and the Contra Costa County Bar Association.

Daniel Phillips, MSW

Dan Phillips is a thirty year veteran of San Francisco Human Services Agency’s Family and Children’s Services division.   In those thirty years he has worked in nearly every function in Child Welfare, including Emergency Response, Hotline, Permanency, Sex Trauma, Court Dependency and Family Services.   He has supervised the Hotline, Emergency Response and is currently supervising Non-Court Family Maintenance, which is a front-end program which attempts to keep families with chronic CPS involvements from re-entering the Dependency System. 

Early in his work with families, Dan realized that fathers were often missing in Dependency cases. Domestic violence was often an issue in families that encountered CPS, but curiously, fathers were frequently treated as disinterested parties in their children’s lives, and typically as an impediment to mothers in delivering care to their children. In the late 90s while working in the Sex Trauma Unit, Dan began doing outreach to community based agencies working with domestic violence—WOMENS Inc, ManAlive, POCOVI, CARACEN, in an attempt to better understand the interplay between inter-familial violence and child welfare. Fortuitously, this involvement happened at the same as the Federal government was creating a demonstration project, The Greenbook, for better addressing domestic violence in child abuse cases.  San Francisco in working with its community partners wrote a proposal for the Greenbook and was one of seven jurisdictions funded with a $3 million grant.  Dan has lectured on the interface between Child Welfare and Community based DV agencies at UC Berkeley’s School of Law and elsewhere.

Despite the progress made through the work of the Greenbook Project, which sought to improve women’s right to self-determination in Child Welfare cases, it still treated fathers as secondary in the support of children. In his role as supervisor in Non-Court Family Maintenance, Dan has done further outreach to fathers in the hope of better understanding the alienation of fathers from their children through the Child Welfare system.  In listening to the generational stories of men talking about their fathers, Dan is working to humanize Child Welfare for fathers. That work attempts to build community around fathers and reduce the isolation that perpetuates helplessness and anger.Dan has lectured on fatherhood with community leaders and attorneys in state-wide conferences and in the community.

Michael Prichard

Michael Prichard M.S., LAADC been involved in the Substance Use Disorder counseling profession for 9 years. He entered the profession in order help those who are struggling with substance use disorders (SUDs) after overcoming a twenty-year addiction to alcohol, benzodiazepines, methamphetamine, and opioid drugs. As a child he lost my father in a tragic event related to his alcoholism and watched several of my mother’s friends die from complications of heroin addiction. In 2006, he experienced a spiritual awakening that changed his life.Michael Prichard is currently a Staff Analyst and community trainer in Substance Use Disorder Services for Fresno County Department of Behavioral Health. From 2011-2012 he was employed as a Client Service Advocate for the Marjaree Mason Center where he assessed victims of domestic violence for substance abuse issues and facilitated process groups and classes on drug education. From 2012-2015 he was employed as a Substance Abuse Specialist for Fresno County Child Welfare. From 2015 -present he has been employed in SUD services with Fresno County Department of Behavioral Health. During this time, he was also employed as a contracted trainer for the Central CA Training Academy through California State University Fresno on the topics of “Caregiver Substance Abuse,” “Intimate Partner Violence,” and is now contracted for “Key Issues in Child Welfare Practice.” He holds a Master’s of Science in Addiction Counseling and a SUD counselor certification (LAADC). He sits on the Central Valley Opioid Safety Coalition and is the current Membership Board President of theCalifornia Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP).

Maryanne Rehberg

Maryanne Rehberg, LCSW, has over 100 years direct experience in the child welfare services arena as a Senior Social Worker, ER Supervisor, and Sr. Staff Development trainer and loved every minute of it…well, most of it!  After leaving the county, she worked as a trainer and Assistant Director at San Francisco State’s School of Social Work’s Bay Area Academy.  She has been a trainer and a consultant for the past 12 years and has authored and trained curricula on a variety of topics such as The Art of Interviewing, Family Engagement and Case Planning, Inside the Teenage Brain, Family Team Meeting Facilitation and Working with LQBT Youth and Families.  She has also been the Executive Director of a Public Access Television station, a therapist, and a coach.  Maryanne fills her time outside of work with foster parenting, doing improv comedy and waterskiing. 

RISEQUITY

RISEQUITY leverages, develops and advances companies’ talent, realizing the economic power and innovative solutions that transform company culture, improves performance, and creates an equitable future for their company and society. Led by recognized facilitators and experts, RISEQUITY provides customized workshops, equity forums, mentoring and advancement programs, where participants are empowered to lead with confidence while positively impacting a company’s culture. With over 40 years of collective expertise, RISEQUITY, Inc. is built upon relationships, expertise and a passion for doing the right thing through professional development consulting. By redefining and transforming company culture, providing the tools, skills and learning opportunities to develop both leaders and employees, it is possible to grow from only focusing on equality, to embracing equity.

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Judy Rutan 

Judy Rutan, MPA, currently serves as the Transfer of Learning & Leadership Specialist employed with the Central California Training Academy.  In her role she provides oversight for Field Based Trainer / Coaching program as well as the implementation of an advanced leadership program for county leadership that incorporates evidence-based practice to advance the leadership skills of supervisors and managers. Judy also provides executive coaching to county leadership and consulting to county staff on organizational readiness and development and system change. Prior to Judy’s employment with the Central Academy, she served as a public child welfare social worker, program specialist and program manager for the County of Kings and deputy director for the County of Tulare.  Previous work experience includes her role the Executive Director for the First 5 Kings Children and Families Commission, as well as an educator for Brandman University teaching classes in system change and organizational development.  

Dora Saenz-Belden

Dora Saenz‐Belden, is a first‐generation Mexican American born in the United States and first member of her family to obtain a Master’s degree. Her parents immigrated from Chihuahua, Mexico with her four brothers and she was raised in Los Angeles. She understands the struggles of people immigrating to the United States with little to no money and has always strived to help others experiencing her similar life. She received her MSW from the University of Long Beach. She began working in the field of social work in 1986 with a number of different non‐profits. This work eventually led Ms. Saenz‐Belden to her 20‐year partnership with the County of Ventura, Children and Family Services as a Child Welfare Social Worker and eventually Supervisor until her retirement in 2017. Interestingly enough, prior to her work with non‐profits and the County of Ventura, Ms. Saenz‐Belden also worked in law enforcement for 10 years which has allowed her a unique perspective of that culture. Currently, Ms. Saenz‐Belden is a Trainer for the Central California Training Academy and Professional Child Welfare Academies training of Child Welfare 3.0 core curriculum and certified as a CANS trainer. She currently resides in Ventura County with her husband and her four grown children who live in the area. She is blessed to have found such a fulfilling career and to now have the opportunity to continue to work with social workers and looks forward to her continued work as an instructor with Child Welfare Social workers.

Nancy Satterwhite 

Nancy Satterwhite currently works as a County Consultant for the Public Child Welfare Training Academy in San Diego.  She previously worked for Riverside County Children’s Services Division (CSD) for 10 years in the capacity of Lineworker, Supervisor, and Manager.  Nancy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with experience working with various populations including dependent children and their families.    

Yasmin Sayyed, Ed.D

More than twenty-five years ago, I was invited to train social workers, line staff and foster care parents for Seneca Center. I facilitated training in cultural relevancy, working with African American youth and families, and culturally specific,nonviolent parenting. Since then, I have trained court mandated and non-mandated parents and adolescentsvia UCSF/Mt. Zion’s Violence Prevention Project,presented at SF General’s department of psychiatry regarding best practices forworking with ethnic and linguistically diverse populations, and Parent Circles at San Francisco’s Juvenile Drug Court. As a coordinator for San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, I facilitated trainingfor teachers, superintendents and their assistants, district office administrators and presented at county and state conferences on educational equity and justice, initiatingsmaller learning communities, intergenerational poverty, closing achievement/opportunity gaps, and community and family engagement. As an independent contractor, I have been training both in South Lake Tahoe (SLT) and in the SF bay areafor the last ten years. At the former SLT Women’s Center, I facilitated staff training in intercultural counseling, and working with LGBTQ youth of colour,as well as train court mandated youthand conducta regional training for social service providers working with intimate partner violence within diverse populations. I trained staff, board and court personnel while working with South Tahoe’s Family Resource Center. Most recently, in the bay area, I have conducted the following training for Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS -formerly Berkeley Oakland Support Services): Trauma-informed treatment for homeless youth and their families,Expressive arts for traumatisedhomeless youth, and Storytelling for the development and reclamation of self; for San Francisco‘s Edgewood Center for Children and Families: Using expressive arts with traumatised youth, Expressive arts and the development of the self, Deconstructing Violence; at CCSF: Helping Fostered Youth Make Meaning of their Lives, Compassion fatigueand re-authorizing the narrative, and for the Seneca Institute for Advanced Practice, I have facilitated the following training: Art therapyfor professionals working with traumatised youth, Deconstructing violence: home, school and community, Transformative storytelling, and Expressivearts and the development of the self.

Carla Sensing

Carla Sensing connects adults to appropriate learning with dynamic Instructional Design by creating interactive, online modules that incorporate proper adult learning theory and fun. Carla believes in making online learning fun and relevant by collaborating with team members in the field. After having taught grade school for twenty‐one years, Carla received her Master’s degree in Instructional Technology and then moved into adult training at a call center. She has extensive knowledge of what it takes to maintain attention and achieve necessary success with online learning.

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Alyssa Steiger

I received my Psy.D. in 2011 from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. For the past 11 years I have been working as a psychotherapist as well as a clinical director, teacher, supervisor and facilitator of group therapies. I have expertise working with adults, adolescents, couples, families and older adults. I work with a lot of people who are feeling stuck in their lives and are looking for more direction. Many people come to me for help with depression and anxiety as well.

Roxanne Stephens, MSW

Roxanne lives in San Benito County, and for more than 31 years, Roxanne has dedicated her life’s work to county government in the area of human and social services. For 21 of those years, she worked in Child Welfare Services, with increasing levels of responsibility beginning as a Social Worker and moving up to Social Services Program Manager. In November 2017, Roxanne took an early retirement and now is seeking other opportunities to put her experience and knowledge back to work to help social workers and county organizations to improve the system and practice of child welfare. Her county management experience has included leading and oversight of two child welfare division (Court Intervention and Continuing Services), a family resource center, an array of county programs and contracted services for families involved in the child welfare system, an evaluation project examining the overrepresentation of Latino families in the child welfare system, and a placement and permanency division. One of her proudest accomplishments has been in leading the effort to transform the San Jose Family Resource Center, where families and youth feel welcome and at home and can access needed services and support.
Roxanne's experiences have also included participating in statewide initiatives and efforts, including the Director’s Circle: Core Practice Model, Linkages: a collaboration between human services divisions, Dually Involved Youth Project:the creation of joint units of Probation Officers and Social Workers to serve high-risk youth, Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) protocol and program development, and Continuum of Care and Resource Family Approval. She has a long history of experience in developing curriculum, conducting training, and facilitating groups. Roxanne's most valuable asset is in collaboration, is building strong relationships with key stakeholders, and bringing together seemingly opposing individuals and groups together towards a common goal, including labor, staff, government organizations, law enforcements, courts, community activist groups, and families.

Christina J. Stimmann, LCSW, MHSA 

Christina J. Stimmann, LCSW, MHSA, has worked for more than 23 years in health and social services.  Her Child Welfare Services experience includes emergency response investigations, family maintenance and reunification, licensing foster/adoptive families and relative/NREFM assessments, visitation, placement, family team meetings as well as supervising and training Child Welfare Services’ workers. 

Ms. Stimmann has also worked in various other health and social service settings including HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, sexual assault, child forensic interviewing, adult mental health, primary care behavioral health and health education.  Additionally, she maintains a small private practice and provides supervision to associate clinical social workers.  Ms. Stimmann is a certified EMDR therapist and a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (M.I.N.T). 

Gary Taylor

Gary has over 40-years working with vulnerable children and families, he firmly believes that through early intervention and prevention the life circumstances of children and families can be positively impacted. His most rewarding experience was ensuring safety and stability for children during 30 -years working for the Orange County Social Service Agency’s Children Family Services Division, as Child Welfare Director for 7 of the thirty. He attributes his success with forging strong relationships and collaboration with universities, Faith partners, Consulates and underserved communities. Highlights include establishing sibling placement homes, Faith in Motion project with 50 congregations, spearheading the CSEC steering Committee and the Eliminating Racial Disparity and Disproportionality workgroup. Gary has directly worked, supervised or provided leadership over every aspect of Child Welfare from child abuse prevention through Adoption finalization process. His passion for this work stems from growing up in a family of seven, in the rural and segregated southeast. Gary’s has vast experience in drafting policy, developing contracts, hiring, recruitment and managing budgets. He early during his career recognized the workforce as the organizations most valuable resource. This being said he created the opportunity for skills-based training, technical training, mentoring and coaching to develop a flexible, creative informed and sustainable workforce. Since retiring, he has provided consulting services on Domestic Violence, Post Adoption Contact Mediation, Developing a California Child WelfareCore Practice Model for use by 58 counties, individual practice coaching to teams and individuals, and as and adjunct professor, taught Graduate level Child Welfare Policy and Grants courses at California State University Fullerton. Gary has been married for 32 years, and is the father of 4. He is involved in music at his local churches music ministry. Gary holds a B.S Degree in Hospital Administration from Western Kentucky University, a Masters Degree in Counseling from Murray State University.

Jenell Thompson 

Jenell Thompson, M.Ed, MSW has worked as an emergency response social worker, intervention specialist, high-risk infant case manager and child development consultant. In addition to holding a Masters degree in Social Work, she holds a Master of Arts in Education & Child Life. She is currently a social work lecturer at CSU Hayward and a recurring guest lecturer at the Center for Community Futures in Berkeley, CA. She has also held lecturer positions at San Francisco State University and The University of Georgia. 

Lun Wang 

Lun is a licensed clinical social worker and has dedicated her work to racial justice and child welfare for over 15 years.  She brings over ten years of leadership experience driving change in the child welfare system in California, serving in various roles as a direct child welfare practitioner, county child welfare leader, and independent consultant.  Lun focuses most of her time working on redesigning the child welfare system on a national scale.  She works with child welfare organizations throughout the country on system redesign using human-centered design approaches, raising voices of families and youth with lived expertise, and centering system change efforts in antiracism. Lun brings specialized expertise in the areas of human-centered design, antiracism, Safety Organized Practice, child and family teaming, and Structured Decision Making (SDM).  Lun also brings clinical expertise in the areas of behavioral health, substance use treatment, and trauma-responsive care.  She also serves as a leadership coach to child welfare leaders and other executive leadership teams. 

Nicki Weld

Nicki Weld is currently a national social work advisor for a Child and Family NGO in New Zealand, and undertaking doctoral study. She is also a Director of CNZN Ltd, New Zealand, which provides training, facilitation, supervision, consultancy and solutions for child protection and social service management and workers. Nicki has worked for a number of years in a variety of social service and child protection roles, including professional leader for social work in general health, senior social worker, supervisor, senior trainer, and as a national social work advisor within the New Zealand government sector. She is the author of The Whole Sphere – Supporting well-being, and recovery from relational trauma (2014 Dunmore Publishing NZ), A Practical Guide to Transformative Supervision for the Helping Professions- Amplifying Insight (Jessica Kingsley Publishing, London 2011); Making Sure Children get 'HELD': Ideas and Resources to Help Workers to Place Hope, Empathy, Love and Dignity at the Heart of Child Protection and Support (Russell House Publishing, London 2009) and co-author of Walking in People's Worlds: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Social Work (Pearson Education, New Zealand 2008). She is the primary creator of the Three Houses information gathering tool. 

Rose Marie Wentz

Rose Marie Wentz has worked in the field of public welfare and child welfare for 42 years. Experienced in providing services to public and private human service agencies, Rose has worked in over 85 counties and states agencies and in one foreign country.
Rose has an undergraduate degree in Social Work and a graduate degree in Public Administration. She is on the board of the National Staff Development and Training Association and was a Senior Consultant for the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections for 13 years.

Marissa Wertheimer

Marissa Wertheimer is an attorney mediator, facilitator and restorative justice expert. Marissa has been practicing understanding-based mediation for 16 years in a variety of settings. Most recently she has been mediating employee disputes for several Bay Area non-profit agencies. In addition, she served as the Restorative Justice Coordinator for Marin County Probation from 2004-2015.

Her experience includes mediating over 400 cases at Marin Mediation Services, (2004-2009) including family, landlord-tenant, and workplace harassment, construction and neighbor disputes. From September 2015 to July 2016, Ms. Wertheimer joined the management team at SEEDS Community Resolution Center, leading a team of restorative justice coordinators. The coordinators worked in three large school districts; as well as providing trainings to the public and in schools throughout the bay area.

As a conflict professional, Ms. Wertheimer provides a process that identifies the issues and conflicts interfering with parties’ ability to communicate and be understood; define objectives and work through obstacles to create and implement an action plan that is doable, measurable and ultimately sustainable.

Ms. Wertheimer believes it is ultimately the parties’ ability, insight and expertise that lead to a satisfying resolution. Years of experience working with families and communities challenged by ongoing disputes supports Ms. Wertheimer’s position as a conflict professional and facilitator who can serve parties entrenched in a conflict dynamic.

Ms. Wertheimer has been a facilitator/coach with the Center for Understanding in Conflict and currently is a licensed trainer for the International Institute of Restorative Practices. She has guest lectured in Mediation and Negotiation classes at Stanford, Hastings and Boalt Law School, provided training for The San Francisco Mediation Society, Association of Conflict Resolution Northern California (former board member), schools and communities in Marin County as well as given talks to Marin Council of Mayors, Marin Rotary Club and other community organizations. Ms. Wertheimer has authored articles on Restorative Justice for the Marin Bar Association Newsletter and served as Chair of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission for Marin County.

Miriam Wolf, MS, LCSW                                  

Is a forensic interview specialist, trainer and curriculum developer in the areas of child maltreatment, forensic interviewing, multidisciplinary teaming and related topics. Author of California’s statewide Child Forensic Interviewer Training (CFIT), Miriam is currently the Director of the Forensic Interviewing Program at the Keller Center in San Mateo County, CA, where she has conducted forensic interviews and provided program consultation since 2003. She previously served as Director of Stuart House, one of the first children’s advocacy centers in the nation and has nearly 30 years of experience as a program director, director of training, social worker and therapist in a variety of children’s service agencies and has served on the boards of CAPSAC and CACC (Children’s Advocacy Centers of California). Miriam has written several pieces of curricula and manuals used state- and nation-wide to train social workers and other professionals including: California’s Child Forensic Interviewer Training (CFIT, 2002, 2007 and 2015 versions), CalSWEC’s Child Sexual Abuse and Interviewing curricula (2002 versions) National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s Child Welfare Training Toolkit Manual (2007 version), Children’s Bureau of Southern California’s NuParent© Training Program (2002 version), Parents Anonymous Program Manual (1999 version), National Children’s Alliance’s Standards for Membership manual (1999 version), Shalom Bayit’s Love Shouldn’t Hurt Jewish dating violence prevention curriculum training manual (2007 version) and Academy for Professional Excellence/OVC’s Collaboration in APS Work (2011 version). Miriam has served on several professional and non-profit agency boards including CAPSAC (California Chapter – American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children), CACC (Children’s Advocacy Centers of California, formerly known as California Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers) and Shalom Bayit (the Bay Area’s Jewish community response to domestic violence). A licensed clinical social worker in the state of California, Miriam holds a Master’s degree in Special Education from Bank Street College of Education and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Columbia University. Miriam also provides expert witness testimony on dynamics of child sexual abuse and forensic interviewing and is a frequent presenter at statewide, national and international conferences.  

Michaela Woodward

22 years of Social Work experience in Child Welfare. This includes extensive Mental Health, Education and Medical experience. Experience supervising both clinical and paraprofessional staff as well as program development/design, managing program budget and participation on Senior Leadership Teams. I value supporting clients in making decisions along with their supporting team of experts and informal supports. Biggest strengths are in engaging and motivating clients, staff and coworkers. Value data-driven approach to client-centered work while also seeking out creative solutions and approaches to practice. 

Rob Woronoff 

Rob Woronoff, MS, has worked with and on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth and families for nearly 20 years. He is a nationally-recognized leader in efforts to address their needs Rob is currently the director of Family Builders’ Putting Pride into Practice Project (P4), an initiative designed to assist county child welfare offices in California in their efforts to support LGBTQ youth. Rob has delivered presentations, speeches and trainings at more than 100 conferences throughout the country. He has served on numerous LGBT boards of directors, task forces and advisory committees for organizations such as the American Bar Association, HRC, the Tides Foundation and the National CASA Association. Rob holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Drama School at Carnegie-Mellon University and a Master of Science degree in Human Services Program Development from the University of Massachusetts where he also taught Program Performance Monitoring and Evaluation at the University’s Graduate School of Community and Public Service. 

Leah Zabel

Ms. Zabel is a knowledgeable and strategic administrative law attorney and hearing officer. In her years of legal practice, she has developed and demonstrated a commitment to protection of core rights and processes that ensure the equitable administration of justice. In her time in legal practice, Ms. Zabel has worked in the federal regulatory context of administrative law, has provided legal defense for individuals in juvenile court proceedings, and worked closely with agencies to reach resolutions. Ms. Zabel also currently conducts administrative hearings under the California Child Abuse Central Index Act, including relevant legal research and analysis.

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