New Leadership Institute for State-based Advocates Class Announced

The Casey Foun­da­tion recent­ly announced the sec­ond class of its Lead­er­ship Insti­tute for State-based Advo­cates. The 15 men and women select­ed to par­tic­i­pate are accom­plished child advo­cates and lead­ers from across the Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Net­work, com­mit­ted to shap­ing prac­ti­cal pol­i­cy solu­tions and pub­lic sys­tem changes. 

The Lead­er­ship Insti­tute, which launched Class 1 in 2012, rep­re­sents a part­ner­ship between the Foundation’s KIDS COUNT team and its lead­er­ship devel­op­ment staff, with the goal of strength­en­ing the num­ber of child advo­cates with the skills nec­es­sary to cre­ate results for kids and fam­i­lies. Over 18 months, par­tic­i­pants will broad­en their vision, increase their knowl­edge, strength­en their exist­ing net­works and expand and refine the lead­er­ship skills crit­i­cal to advanc­ing pol­i­cy reform and advo­ca­cy agendas. 

We wel­come and look for­ward to the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the fol­low­ing child advocates:

• Laila A. Bell, direc­tor of research and data, NC Child (Raleigh, N.C.)
• Megan Bran­ham, pol­i­cy and gov­ern­ment liai­son, Children’s Trust of South Car­oli­na (Colum­bia, S.C.)
• Xiomara P. Caro Díaz, gov­ern­ment affairs direc­tor, Youth Devel­op­ment Insti­tute, Inc./Boys and Girls Clubs of Puer­to Rico (San Juan, P.R.)
• Rachel Coop­er, senior pol­i­cy ana­lyst, Cen­ter for Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Pri­or­i­ties (Austin, Texas)
• Jes­si­ca Delasan­dro Mind­nich, direc­tor of research, Chil­dren Now (Oak­land, Calif.)
• Peg­gy Flana­gan, exec­u­tive direc­tor, Children’s Defense Fund-Min­neso­ta (Min­neapo­lis)
• Lau­ra Kel­lams, North­west Arkansas direc­tor, Arkansas Advo­cates for Chil­dren and Fam­i­lies (Spring­dale, Ark.)
• Rose Nac­cara­to, KIDS COUNT direc­tor, Ten­nessee Com­mis­sion for Chil­dren and Youth (Nashville, Tenn.)
• Lau­ren Necochea, direc­tor, Ida­ho KIDS COUNT (Boise, Idaho)
• Lin­coln Nehring, senior health pol­i­cy ana­lyst, Voic­es for Utah Chil­dren (Salt Lake City)
• Michael Odeh, senior health pol­i­cy asso­ciate, Chil­dren Now (Oak­land, Calif.)
• Lori Pfin­gst, research direc­tor, Wash­ing­ton State Bud­get & Pol­i­cy Cen­ter (Seat­tle)
• Cyn­thia C. Rice, senior pol­i­cy ana­lyst at Advo­cates for Chil­dren of New Jer­sey (Newark, N.J.)
• Car­olyn D. Rook­er, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Voic­es for Chil­dren in Nebras­ka (Oma­ha, Neb.)
• Roger Senser­rich, pol­i­cy coor­di­na­tor, Con­necti­cut Asso­ci­a­tion for Human Ser­vices (Hart­ford, Conn.)