Nilofer Ahsan
Nilofer Ahsan is a policy expert in child and family policy and community revitalization. Over the past 25 years, she has worked with the federal government, the governments of all 50 US states, and municipal and community leaders in cities across the country to frame and implement a wide range of policies. Nilofer led several nationwide initiatives. She was the founding co-director of the FRIENDS National Resource Center, charged by the federal government to help states implement new federal family support policy. More recently, she led the Center for the Study of Social Policy’s Strengthening Families Initiative, which has been adopted by 40 states, several foreign countries, and over a dozen collaborating national organizations and is cited as a national model by a number of federal partners including the US Department of Health and Human Services. Ahsan currently works as an independent consultant on a variety of projects including: a federally funded initiative to support strategic dissemination and national dialogue around child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention; developing model national policy around the sexual and reproductive needs of youth in out-of-home care; support for expectant and parenting youth in out-of-home care; a partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories to develop new models for urban farming and work developing innovative child care models to meet the unique needs of low-wage shift workers.
One of Ahsan’s areas of expertise is developing materials and tools that will help practitioners in the field innovate, adopt new practices and build their skills and capacities. She has served as the lead author on dozens of publications, curricula and tools for professionals working to support children and families. Ahsan was named a Next Generation Leadership Fellow by the Rockefeller Foundation, and has been asked to sit on over a dozen national advisory committee and boards focused on issues of social and community change. A lifelong activist for social justice Ahsan co-led the Indo-Pak Peace Initiative, as well as serving in the leadership of a number of groups focused on diaspora politics, women and violence, and educational reform.
Ahsan received both her bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago where she was a Viola Bower Scholar, received the Howell-Murray award for contributions to student life, and was one of a handful of students ever accepted for simultaneous undergraduate and graduate admission
Theresa Costello
Theresa E. Costello, MA, is the Executive Director of ACTION for Child Protection, a non-profit organization committed to working with public child welfare agencies to improve the quality of decision-making and case practice. Ms. Costello has 30 years of experience in the field of child welfare and is a nationally recognized expert on safety and risk decision-making approaches for Child Protective Services. Ms. Costello currently provides technical assistance and training to numerous states and tribes as well as to International audiences, on state-of-the art child welfare topics such as differential response, safety-focused intervention, workload management, evidence-based practice and managing toward successful child welfare outcomes.
Ms. Costello received her undergraduate degree from the University of Denver and her MA in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. She began her career working for the Children’s Division of the American Humane Association, then worked for the National Conference of State Legislatures before coming to ACTION in July of 1985. At ACTION, Ms. Costello began as an entry level staff associate and moved up to become the Deputy Director and in 2011 became the Executive Director.
Sarah Houser, MSW.
Sarah Houser, MSW, currently serves as the Child Protective Services Program Administrator for the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. Sarah has worked for DCFS for 19 years in a variety of capacities. Sarah began her work in child welfare as a front-line caseworker. As a caseworker, Sarah maintained a caseload comprised of each primary program area, including; CPS, in-home, foster care, reunification, and adoption. Sarah transitioned into a supervisory position over a specialized CPS team. Sarah was a trainer for the Salt Lake Region before advancing to the state administrative office where her expertise in multiple program areas aided her in her capacity as the Constituent Services Program Administrator. She then transitioned into her current role.
As the CPS program administrator for the division for the past 5 years, Sarah has overseen program and practice for CPS workers state-wide. Sarah also maintains an excellent working knowledge of other child welfare program areas. Sarah continues to serve as a key member of the IV-E Waiver initiative, HomeWorks. Sarah is leading the movement of promoting CPS as the division’s first in-home service. Sarah was the project lead in updating and enhancing the SDM tools and application. Sarah also led the roll out and training of the enhanced SDM Safety Assessment and Safety Planning, as well as incorporating the Protective Factors into the CPS assessment Process. Sarah is the point person for all CPS policy as well as any CPS related legislation. She was also the project lead for the centralization of Utah’s child abuse and neglect hotline.
Amanda Elliott
Amanda Elliott, SWAG Family Resource Center Manager, Partnership for Strong Families, Gainesville, FL. Amanda is the manager of one of Partnership’s largest Resource Center locations. SWAG Family Resource Center is uniquely positioned within a neighborhood and focuses on building upon community assets – individuals, systems and services that are already successful – to create opportunities for the community, as a whole. As manager, Amanda oversees the coordination and provision of on-site and referral services and programs designed to reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect by increasing protective factors. Amanda began her work in the field of child welfare over 10 years ago as a Child Protective Investigator and has since served in various roles including diversion and prevention capacities. Amanda is passionate about partnering with families to ensure that they have the support and resources needed to sustain and improve family functioning and resiliency. Amanda completed her undergraduate work at Troy University and is pursuing a Masters of Social Work at Florida State University.
Christine Weems
Christine Weems graduated from Middle Tennessee State University where she obtained a Bachelor of Social Work and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology. She has worked in the child welfare field for the past 25 years. She began her career in Social Work with the Tennessee Department of Children Services as a Child Protective Investigator. In 1998 she moved back to her home state of Florida and joined the Florida Department of Children and Families and continued working as an investigator. In 2004 she promoted to the position of Child Protective Investigation Supervisor. During this time she became a member of the DV Fatality Review Team for the Third Judicial circuit. In 2007 Christine was selected to participate in the state wide Child Welfare Leadership Academy where the group developed a similar program for teens in care - Florida Youth Leadership Academy (FYLS). Christine mentored various foster children over a 5 year period as part of the Florida Youth Leadership Academy and became the “unofficial” photographer for program. She created scrapbooks for each group and presented one to each youth when they graduated from the program for each youth that participated in the program.
Christine was awarded the Third Circuit Judicial Award of Excellence in 2010. In 2014 Christine promoted to the position of Family Services Specialist where she continues to utilize her wealth of knowledge in child welfare to mentor and train supervisors and investigators in completing a thorough investigation. Christine also represents Circuit 8 as the Human Trafficking , DV expert and medical neglect expert. Christine maintains an excellent working relationship with community and partner agencies as well with the court system.
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.