2025–27 Class of Children's Health Leadership Network Named

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion is pleased to announce the selec­tion of the fourth class of the Children’s Health Lead­er­ship Net­work (CHLN), a rig­or­ous Results Count^® lead­er­ship devel­op­ment ini­tia­tive. The 18-month pro­gram sup­ports par­tic­i­pants in build­ing skills for sys­tem reform and stake­hold­er advo­ca­cy to improve health and well-being for all chil­dren in the Unit­ed States and, most specif­i­cal­ly, chil­dren at great­est risk for poor health out­comes. The 2025–27 class includes teams from Con­necti­cut and Hawaii, each focus­ing on sup­port­ing chil­dren and youth with mod­er­ate-to-high behav­ioral health needs and their families.

Meet the Team Mem­bers of CHLN Cohort 4

These teams bring togeth­er pub­lic sec­tor lead­ers and advo­cates with direct expe­ri­ences nav­i­gat­ing behav­ioral health sys­tems. Pub­lic agen­cies are rep­re­sent­ed by state lead­ers over­see­ing juve­nile jus­tice, child wel­fare, youth men­tal and behav­ioral health and Medicaid. 

The CHLN Experience

The 2025–27 pro­gram launch­es in spring 2025 with site vis­its; the first cohort sem­i­nar takes place in Sep­tem­ber 2025. These inten­sive learn­ing ses­sions are designed to build skills in the areas of child health pol­i­cy and sys­tem reform and Results Count lead­er­ship to improve out­comes in mea­sur­able ways. 

In addi­tion to sem­i­nars, teams will ben­e­fit from indi­vid­u­al­ized coach­ing and tech­ni­cal assis­tance. Between for­mal ses­sions, par­tic­i­pants will apply new­ly acquired skills and tools in their home sys­tems in ser­vice of their goals. 

Inno­va­tions Insti­tute at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut School of Social Work is co-design­ing and co-facil­i­tat­ing the pro­gram. It has exper­tise in help­ing states, local com­mu­ni­ties and orga­ni­za­tions imple­ment sys­tems of care to bet­ter sup­port chil­dren, youth and young adults with men­tal health con­di­tions. High­lights of the approach include: 

• coor­di­nat­ing ser­vices and sup­port across systems;
• pro­vid­ing high-qual­i­ty, indi­vid­u­al­ized and trau­ma-respon­sive care; and
• ele­vat­ing the voic­es of youth and fam­i­lies in their care.

The teams will col­lab­o­rate across agen­cies and sec­tors to redesign sys­tems to ensure that all chil­dren, youth and their fam­i­lies have the access they need to behav­ioral health care. 

“Chil­dren and fam­i­lies often must nav­i­gate mul­ti­ple sys­tems to have their needs met,” says Joe Rib­sam, direc­tor of Child Wel­fare and Juve­nile Jus­tice Pol­i­cy at the Foun­da­tion. ​“By col­lab­o­rat­ing across sys­tems and with young peo­ple and par­ents direct­ly, we hope this expe­ri­ence allows par­tic­i­pants to shift pub­lic sys­tems in ways that tru­ly cen­ter all of the peo­ple they serve.” 

“The expe­ri­ence gives lead­ers new tools and skills to make mea­sur­able and mean­ing­ful improve­ments to health out­comes while nav­i­gat­ing an increas­ing­ly uncer­tain and adap­tive envi­ron­ment,” says Marie LeBlanc, a senior asso­ciate at Casey. ​“Par­tic­i­pants will use real-time tests of change to learn and accel­er­ate progress on their long-term strategies.” 

Watch: Intro­duc­ing the Chil­dren’s Health Lead­er­ship Network