2010-2011 Children and Family Fellows Announced

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, a nation­al foun­da­tion work­ing to improve out­comes for at-risk chil­dren, is pleased to announce its 2010–2011 Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Fel­low­ship Class. The 18 men and women select­ed for the pro­gram are accom­plished pub­lic sys­tems admin­is­tra­tors, non­prof­it lead­ers and com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment pro­fes­sion­als from across the coun­try, com­mit­ted to help­ing low-income fam­i­lies suc­ceed as par­ents, com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and pro­duc­tive par­tic­i­pants in the work­force and economy.

The Casey Foun­da­tion cre­at­ed the Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Fel­low­ship to increase the pool of lead­ers with the vision, dri­ve and abil­i­ty to cre­ate and sus­tain major sys­tem reforms and com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tives that ben­e­fit large num­bers of chil­dren and fam­i­lies. The 20-month pro­gram brings togeth­er ambi­tious exec­u­tives from var­i­ous pro­fes­sion­al back­grounds, geo­graph­ic regions and racial and eth­nic groups to par­tic­i­pate in a series of inten­sive lead­er­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties. Fel­lows engage in exec­u­tive sem­i­nars, site vis­its to learn about path-break­ing agen­cies and orga­ni­za­tions through­out the coun­try that have pio­neered inno­v­a­tive ser­vice deliv­ery mod­els and appli­ca­tion of learn­ing with­in their home organizations.

“By offer­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive and indi­vid­u­al­ized learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, the Fel­low­ship pro­gram aug­ments lead­ers’ knowl­edge and expe­ri­ences, sharp­ens their skills, broad­ens their per­spec­tives and increas­es their influ­ence. It’s an impor­tant and nec­es­sary invest­ment in the future of the human ser­vices field, and ulti­mate­ly in the futures of vul­ner­a­ble kids,” said Patrick McCarthy, president/​CEO of the Casey Foundation.

“Effec­tive lead­er­ship is para­mount to mak­ing real change in the lives of dis­ad­van­taged fam­i­lies,” said Don­na Stark, vice pres­i­dent for Tal­ent Man­age­ment & Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment for the Casey Foun­da­tion. ​“We know that great ideas won’t make a dif­fer­ence with­out vision­ary, coura­geous, com­pe­tent lead­ers who turn ideas into action. The Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Fel­low­ship is designed to sup­port and strength­en lead­ers’ abil­i­ty to make mea­sur­able dif­fer­ences for chil­dren, fam­i­lies and communities.”

Estab­lished in 1993, the Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Fel­low­ship pro­gram has had sev­en class­es with a total of 75 par­tic­i­pants who now com­prise the Casey Fel­lows Alum­ni Net­work. The Net­work pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties for pro­fes­sion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion and con­ducts ongo­ing lead­er­ship devel­op­ment activ­i­ties. Alum­ni mem­bers include Bren­da Don­ald, cur­rent sec­re­tary of Maryland’s Depart­ment of Human Resources; Daniel Car­di­nali, pres­i­dent of the nation­al non-prof­it Com­mu­ni­ties in Schools; Yolie Aguilar, vice pres­i­dent, Los Ange­les Uni­fied School Dis­trict Board of Edu­ca­tion; and Chet Hewitt, pres­i­dent of the Sier­ra Health Foundation.

View the list of 2010–2011 Casey Fellows>