Taffy Compain
Taffy Compain is the National Foster Care Specialist at the Capacity Building Division of the Children’s Bureau (CB). She has more than 20 years of experience in child welfare practice and administration.
Ms. Compain began her career in child welfare at the Florida Department of Children and Families as a Foster Care Counselor and later served as the State of Florida Licensing Specialist, Out-of-Home Care Program Manager, Compact Administrator of the Florida Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children and the Interstate Compact on Adoptions and Medical Assistance, Administrator of the Florida Adoption Reunion Registry, and as Child Welfare Professionals Training Administrator.
Ms. Compain has presented nationally on interstate child welfare issues and disaster preparedness and planning. She relocated to Washington, D.C., to manage the Training and Technical Assistance Center at the Child Welfare Reviews Project of JBS International, providing support to CB in training Federal consultant reviewers and State agency staff in preparation for Child and Family Services Reviews. Ms. Compain also participated in numerous reviews and subsequent program improvement efforts. As the National Foster Care Specialist, Ms. Compain provides leadership on national foster care initiatives and agendas, serves as liaison to the National Association of State Foster Care Managers, and is Federal Project Officer for numerous grants and cooperative agreements. A bilingual native of Puerto Rico, she has supported numerous efforts to engage and service the Latino community throughout her career.
Chrissy Triplett
Chrissy Triplett has her bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies from Auburn University and a master’s degree in social work from the Joint Master of Social Work Program with The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Ms. Triplett has been a social worker for more than 15 years working in child welfare. She serves as the Project Manager with the Catawba County Child Wellbeing Project, a multiyear research project funded by The Duke Endowment and Casey Family Programs to improve the well-being of children who exit the foster care system to a permanent placement through the development and replication of evidence-based practices. Ms. Triplett also oversees adoption and family in-home services at Catawba County Social Services. She is certified by the Center for Adoption Support and Education to provide the Training for Adoption Competency to mental health providers.
Heather Ball
Heather Ball holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and sociology as well as a master’s degree in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ms. Ball has worked for Catawba County Social Services for more than 8 years. She served as the Evaluation Coordinator for the Child Wellbeing Project and now manages the Continuous Quality Improvement Unit for the agency, which is responsible for quality assurance and improvement tasks across the service continuum. Prior to her work in Catawba County, Heather worked for 3 years at Duke University Medical Center in the psychiatry department coordinating clinical trials.
Phillip Redmond Jr.
Phillip H. Redmond, Jr., joined The Duke Endowment in 2000 as Assistant Director of the Child Care Division and was promoted to Associate Director in 2006. While at the Endowment, Mr. Redmond has directed several projects on a variety of topics including, among others, wellness, evidence-based programs, implementation science, building the evaluation capacity of nonprofits, and education. Mr. Redmond previously was the Executive Director of the Children's Law Center in Charlotte, NC, and formerly was in private practice in North Carolina. Mr. Redmond's education includes a bachelor of arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a law degree from Campbell University School of Law. Mr. Redmond sits on the Board of Directors for the Council on Accreditation.
Karin Malm
Karin Malm has more than 25 years’ experience conducting research and evaluation of child welfare programs, including adoption and kinship care, foster care, family preservation and support, child protective services and domestic violence collaborative efforts, and nonresident father support and engagement. She recently served as the principal investigator on an experimental evaluation of the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids adoption recruitment program, the primary initiative of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. In addition, she directed several experimental evaluations of an intensive relative search model, Family Finding, increasingly being implemented by child welfare agencies to improve outcomes for foster children.
Over the years, Ms. Malm has studied many aspects of kinship care and is currently examining kinship diversion practices. She developed two national surveys—the National Survey of Adoptive Parents and the National Survey of Children in Nonparental Care. She was the primary author of What About the Dads? Child Welfare Agencies’ Efforts to Identify, Locate, and Involve Nonresident Fathers, which prompted funding for the U.S. Department Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Quality Improvement Center on Nonresident Fathers and Child Welfare.
Jennifer Marcelli, M.S.W., L.C.S.W.
Jennifer Marcelli serves as the Program Area Manager for foster care, family empowerment, and the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113–183) for the Capacity Building Center for States. In her role, Ms. Marcelli works closely with the Children’s Bureau and other experts to shape and implement the priority agenda for her program areas. One of Ms. Marcelli’s primary responsibilities is helping build capacity in Foster Care and Permanency, Family Empowerment, and P.L. 113–183 by developing and managing projects, products, learning experiences, and constituency groups. With over 12 years of experience as a line worker, supervisor, and senior administrator in a child welfare organization, Ms. Marcelli has extensive experience in many child welfare program areas, including program development and implementation of youth, foster care, and adoption programs, and has extensive project management experience.