FAMILY CONNECTS INTERNATIONAL - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Treasurer

For forty years Mr. Adlin enjoyed a wide-ranging career in the financial services industry. After working in the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York City, he worked variously as Executive Vice President, Managing Director, Partner,…

Job Titles:

• Executive, Leadership

Bonnie Hepler, RN (BSN), MSW, MSPH, PhD (nursing) has a unique skill set that balances a robust research and clinical portfolio in maternal and child health with a humanistic perspective. She earned her PhD at Duke University in nursing studying healthcare systems support of birthing parents and their families, especially among those experiencing trauma and disparities using mixed method approaches. Dr. Hepler currently works at Family Connects International as the Acting Chief Nursing Officer and Nurse Manager. She has prior experience as a nurse in Labor and Delivery, Postpartum Care and home visiting as a nurse. Additionally, she worked as a social worker at UNC Hospitals focused on pediatric oncology and inpatient child abuse. She was also Co-Director of SHAC, the oldest student run, free health clinic in the country.

Job Titles:

• Leader
• Chief Internal Operations Officer
• Co - Executive Director of the National CARES Mentoring Movement
• Executive, Leadership

Stephen Powell is the Co-Executive Director of the National CARES Mentoring Movement. He previously served as the Executive Director of Mentoring USA. Powell's commentaries on leadership, organizational strategy and mentoring can be found in the New York Times, Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, the Costco Connection and other national publications. Some of his most notable honors include GQ Magazine's Movado Leader Award, Black Enterprise Magazine's 100 Modern Men of Distinction, and a White House "Champion of Change Following in the Footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.". Powell is an alumnus of the Institute for Non-profit Management program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business and Howard University. Colette Parrish is a seasoned leader with over 20 years of experience in finance, human resources, and operations management. She earned an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, where she honed her skills in finance, strategy, and operations management. As the Chief Internal Operations Officer, Colette oversees the Finance, Human Resources, Informational Technology, Data Systems, Marketing, Reporting, Communications, Business Development, and Legal teams. She collaborates on the development and execution of strategic plans, manages cross-functional initiatives, and works to optimize processes, reduce costs, and drive results, all while maintaining a focus on the needs of employees and stakeholders.

Job Titles:

• Senior Policy Analyst for Early Childhood Policy at the Center for American

Cristina Novoa is senior policy analyst for Early Childhood Policy at the Center for American Progress. Simon Workman is the director of Early Childhood Policy at the Center.

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder and CEO of Capita
• Ex Officio
• Senior Research Fellow Emeritus at Chapin Hall

Joe Waters is the co-founder and CEO of Capita and serves as a Senior Advisor at Openfields consulting firm. Waters was the Executive Vice President of the Institute for Child Success. A 2021 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow, his views have been published by several outlets, including the Investor's Business Daily, The Hill, Newsweek, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Charlotte Observer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Nonprofit Quarterly. He was invited to speak at the White House's first forum on social impact finance, the Aspen Forum on Children and Families, the Lego Idea Conference, Think Future, and the World Forum on Early Care and Education. He is a board member of the Felician Center and chairs the South Carolina Advisory Board for Nurse-Family Partnership. He has a bachelor's degree from Furman University and a master's degree in divinity from Duke University. Deborah Daro, Senior Research Fellow Emeritus at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, has played a key role in the development and assessment of evidence-based home visitation programs, working with Federal administrators and Congressional leaders in crafting initial guidelines for the Federal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV). Prior to joining Chapin Hall in January 1999, Dr. Daro contributed to the development of Healthy Families America (HFA), one of the largest evidence-based home visiting models in the country. With over 40 years of experience in evaluating child abuse treatment and prevention programs, she is considered one of the leading national experts in crafting effective strategies to prevent child maltreatment, foster positive parent-child interactions, and support optimal child development. Most recently her research and writing have focused on strategies, such as Family Connects, that embed individualized, targeted prevention efforts within more universal efforts to alter normative standards and community context. Dr. Daro holds a Ph.D. in social welfare policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Job Titles:

• Director

Dr. English completed her Ph.D. at the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. For the next 17 years, she was the Director of Research for the Children's Administration of the Washington Department of Social and Health Services.…

Job Titles:

• Director
• Health Communications and Strategy Expert

Diane R. Johnson, MPH, is a health communications and strategy expert. For almost 25 years, she has served in several executive capacities including her current position as the Chief Communications and Public Health Officer at Miss Porter's School (Farmington, CT). She is the former Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Providence Hospital (DC), has held senior-level roles in both large and boutique PR agencies and was a senior adviser to the Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health. Diane is a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health where she also is adjunct faculty in its online master's program. She uses her expertise in public health and communications to educate and facilitate behavior change to improve people's lives. She brings her love of public health, passion for communications, and international health experience in service to Family Connects International.

Job Titles:

• Chairman
• Certified Medical Specialist

Dr. Jonathan Kotch, a board-certified medical specialist in pediatrics and preventive medicine, retired in 2016 after 38 years on the faculty of the Department of Maternal and Child Health of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Kotch was the lead researcher for the North Carolina cohort of LONGSCAN, Longitudinal Studies in Child Abuse and Neglect, which at the time was the longest (22 years) and the largest (1354 mother-infant pairs) ever funded by the Office of Child Abuse and Neglect of USDHHS. Dr. Kotch served for 8 years on the Advisory Board of the Durham Family Initiative, the precursor of FCI.

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor
• FOUNDER

Dr. Karen O'Donnell is Associate Professor (retired), Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center and Director of Prevention and Global Initiatives at the Center for Child and Family Health (retired). She continues to be an active participant in the implementation of the universal short-term home visiting program for newborns and their families and Family Connects. Dr. Karen O'Donnell is Associate Professor (retired), Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center and Director of Prevention and Global Initiatives at the Center for Child and Family Health (also retired). She is a Senior Research Fellow at Duke Global Health Initiative. She received her graduate training in special education (M.Ed.) and clinical psychology (Ph.D.) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed post-doctoral study in Early Childhood at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle. She has been a Licensed Practicing Psychologist in North Carolina since 1988. Her expertise focuses on infant and early childhood and development, traumatic stress, parenting, maternal mental health and treatment, the effects of in utero cocaine and HIV exposure on early development, and child and family assessment. Dr. O'Donnell is the lead author on the PEPFAR funded Child Status Index (CSI), now used to assess orphans and other vulnerable children in over 16 resource poor countries; the CSI provided the model for the Family Support Matrix, used in the Family Connects program. She continues to be an active participant in the implementation of the universal short-term home visiting program for newborns and their families, Family Connects, and its national dissemination.

Job Titles:

• Acting CEO
• Executive
• Nurse

Jenny Jensen is a nurse executive with expertise in home visiting, postpartum care, and women's health. Jenny brings experience leading health care systems reforms that improve health care quality and safety, particularly in pursuit of health equity. She has a dual masters in public health and nursing from Johns Hopkins University, is a board-certified lactation consultant, and has lived and worked abroad as a Foreign Service Officer.

Job Titles:

• FOUNDER
• Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University
• Ex Officio

Kenneth Dodge is the William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He is also a faculty fellow at the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy, which he founded in 1999. Ken's research resulted in the Family Connects Model and he continues to publish new evidence on Family Connects at Duke University.

Job Titles:

• Chief Program Officer ( CPO )
• Executive, Leadership

Kimberly Friedman came to the Center for Child and Family Policy and FCI in 2018. As Chief Program Officer, Kimberly serves as a model expert and consultant for public stakeholders as they are exploring development of early childhood systems at the local and state levels. She monitors relevant federal and state policy, provides guidance on public/private funding options and explores opportunities to engage with the insurance/managed care industry. Both in her experience as an attorney and as a business development officer for a nonprofit organization, Kimberly's career has focused on early childhood.

Job Titles:

• Chief Community Impact Officer
• Executive, Leadership

Renée Boothroyd brings extensive experience in public health and implementation science to her role as Chief Community Impact Officer. For over 25 years, Renee has worked with community, state, federal, and philanthropic partners to facilitate getting evidence about "what works" into real-world practice to improve the health and well-being of children and families. She worked for 15 years with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute to help organizations develop their own resources and abilities to host and maintain improvements in child welfare practice. Across other human service systems, she has led multi-site technical assistance projects that help states support communities in "what it takes" for effective implementation practice. Renee's approach to improving population-level outcomes consistently focuses on investing in community strengths and relationships for partnership and engagement and using data for understanding and improvement. She is committed to social justice and partnering with differently resourced communities to ensure equity in implementation.

Job Titles:

• Director

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor
• FOUNDER
• Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University
• Ex Officio

Robert Murphy is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University, Executive Director for the Center for Child & Family Health, and co-founder. Robert collaborates with the Duke University Research Team to publish findings.

Job Titles:

• Chief Development Officer
• Executive, Leadership

Stephen founded and directed a number of child-serving and community-based organizations, including the Center for Child Advocacy & Research, based in California, and a special needs adoption agency in Charlotte, NC. Additionally, Stephen was hired as the first Executive Director to lead a therapeutic organization for child victims of abuse and neglect on site of a 13-acre ranch in Napa Valley. He recently served as Development Director with Children's Literacy Project and before that was Executive Director with the North Carolina Commission on Racial & Ethnic Disparities. As a consultant, Stephen has worked with several start-ups and established NGOs dedicated to a variety of issues including international hunger relief, early childhood nutrition, homelessness, and sexual assault prevention & awareness in areas such as board development, strategic planning, and fundraising.