Ick-Joong Chung, Ph.D., is currently the President of the National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC) and Professor of the Department of Social Welfare at Ewha Womans University in Korea. Dr. Chung has an M.A. from Seoul National University and a doctorate in social work from the University of Washington. He has worked primarily to understand the relationship between poverty/child maltreatment and children/youth's development; specifically, how children/youth develop and how families function in disadvantaged social environments. His research interests include violence, delinquency, child maltreatment, and prevention research. Recently, he has been interested in the relationships between out-of-home placement and psychosocial adjustment, and risk/resilience factors of problem behaviors that operate at multiple levels as well as their implications for prevention.
Marty McGukin, a native Texan and lover of all things tacos, lives in Idaho Falls with her husband and 3 children. She is a published author, speaker and graphic designer. Marty currently serves as a foster parent trainer through the Family Resource and Training Center. She holds a BA from Howard Payne University and an MDivBL from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, both in Texas.
Robert (Rob) has over 20 years of social work experience working for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare – Division of Children and Family Services. His experience includes working as a Child Welfare Safety Assessor, Childrens Mental Health Clinician, Child Welfare Supervisor and Child Welfare Chief. Rob retired from the Department in 2021 and is currently working as a Child Welfare Recruitment Coordinator for Eastern Washington University. As a Child Welfare Recruiter Rob spends time recruiting social work students from area Universities and Colleges for careers in child welfare.
Stephanie has over 20 years of experience in Social Services. She currently works for the Family Resource and Training Center at Eastern Washington University. She is an Embedded Trainer for the Child Welfare Workforce Development Training Team in contract with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Children and Family Services Program. She provides training to new workers as well as coaching. She provides leadership coaching to persons in supervisory positions. She has a passion for in-home prevention services. She is currently in her last year of school with Eastern Washington University in their Master of Social Work Program.
Dianna is a recent transplant to Washington. She was born in California and raised by her grandparents in Indiana. She has 4 adult children and 2 grandchildren (her reason for moving to Washington). Dianna is currently working for Service Alternatives, LLC as the Area Manager for the Service Alternatives Training Institute (SATI). She supports a team of Training Specialists in developing and facilitating curricula for Foster Parents, DSPs, and various caregivers with Service Alternatives. Before working with Service Alternatives Dianna spent many years working in and managing customer service teams, account management, and training in the customer service arena. She holds certificates as a Master Trainer, in Blended Learning and Designing Learning from ATD and a master’s in education in Curriculum and Instruction.
Melissa Bernier is a skilled Child Welfare Workforce Training and Development Specialist at the Family Resource and Training Center with Eastern Washington University in contract with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Child and Family Services Program. She is an adept project manager, curriculum development, and implementation specialist who ensures measurable outcomes, worker satisfaction, and retention. She is a licensed clinical social worker with 20+ years of experience in child welfare, residential treatment, treatment foster care, community mental health counseling for individuals, couples, and groups, clinical supervision, and adjunct college professor. She is a certified trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapist and motivational interviewing trained clinical professional. Melissa is currently working to achieve a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership with an emphasis on Instructional Design and Technology at Idaho State University. She has 5 years of experience as the West Coast Child Welfare Trainer’s Conference Director and is responsible for organizing large-scale professional conference planning and execution.
Heather Lynch (she/her/hers) MA, CRC, OPMA has been mentoring and guiding Motivational Interviewing skills practice with a wide variety of humans in service working with other humans on growth and change, since 2007. Heather is a certified rehabilitation counselor, member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and is a Training and Development Specialist with Oregon Child Welfare, Equity, Training, and Workforce Development Program. She is passionate about helping individuals to find their own style and practice within the Spirit of MI. Heather has created learning opportunities for people in many settings and roles, working with humans on a variety of change and growth topics. She has been a Trainer Support and Lead Trainer for MINT Train New Trainer events and finds joy in coaching others to grow as a MI trainer and find their way to MINT membership.
Holly Bond is a Regional Supervisor with the Alliance for Professional Development, Training, and Caregiver Excellence. In this role she supports Development and Facilitation Specialists designing and delivering curricula that enable caregivers and other professionals to enhance the skills they need to support children and families. Holly has worked in the child welfare field for 20 years. Prior to that, she served as an advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Her early career began in the HIV prevention and education field.
Holly holds a Master of Science (MS) in training and development from the University of Louisville. In recent years, she has focused on trauma-informed somatic and mindful practices, completing 500+ hours of training in Mindfulness-Based Yoga, earning a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-500) credential, alongside achieving Qualified Teacher (QT) status of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), an evidenced-based curriculum, through the University of California at San Diego’s Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute. She has also completed over 20 hours of Trauma Center – Trauma Sensitive Yoga training with the Center for Trauma and Embodiment Yoga Program. She joined a team of mindfulness instructors at Mindfulness Northwest in 2019, where she continues to teach to this day.
Tyler (he/they) is the Classroom Technology and Communications Specialist with the Child Welfare Partnership at Portland State. They started with the Office of Information Technology in 2016 as a Helpdesk Technician, eventually moving into the Helpdesk Coordinator role in 2018, and concurrently holding the Digital Accessibility Technician role from 2020-2021. Tyler’s current duties vary greatly, but include managing participant communications and registration logistics, and providing technical support and accessibility advice to both Child Welfare Partnership staff and training participants.
Alex is the Digital Accessibility Support Specialist with the Office of Information Technology (OIT) at Portland State. They started with OIT in 2020 as a Helpdesk Technician, eventually swapping roles to an accessibility-focused technician role. Their current role with OIT involves strategically increasing digital accessibility awareness by creating university-wide communications, educating the Portland State community about how to generate accessible digital resources, and producing support content on key digital accessibility topics.
Nora Joanne Gerber is an instructor for multiple Health and Human Services programs. The recipient of an Outstanding Service Award for Teaching from UC Davis Extension, Nora also received the first Distinguished Service in Training Award from the National Staff Development and Training Association, an affiliate of the American Public Human Services Association. Additionally, Nora was honored to receive the Lewis Hine Award presented by the National Child Labor Committee in recognition of her outstanding service on behalf of children and youth. Nora models being a life-long learner, and shares her over 50 years of training expertise with passion, creativity, and humor.
Michelle Clinch has 30 years of experience working in communications and adult education, with 12 of those in child welfare. As NCWWI's National Campaign Manager, she collaborates with creative team members to develop products and events, leads the social media strategy, contributes to the design of the Leadership Academy, and supports communication efforts.
Amanda Hughes is a Coaching and Training Specialist with the Oregon Child Abuse Hotline (ORCAH). In her role she delivers Screener Training Academy, facilitates group and individual coaching during Post Academy Coaching, provides consultation for new and seasoned screeners, and develops practice tools and training content to aide in the consistent application of statute, Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) and Child Welfare Procedure. Amanda earned her Master of Arts in Global Development and Justice from Multnomah University in 2017. Prior to working for Oregon Child Welfare, Amanda was contracted into Child Welfare as a co-located Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocate. In her five years with Oregon Child Welfare, Amanda has held roles from protective services to screening abuse reports, all prior to her current position in ORCAH’s Training and Program team.
Amanda Hughes is a Coaching and Training Specialist with the Oregon Child Abuse Hotline (ORCAH). In her role she delivers Screener Training Academy, facilitates group and individual coaching during Post Academy Coaching, provides consultation for new and seasoned screeners, and develops practice tools and training content to aide in the consistent application of statute, Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) and Child Welfare Procedure. Amanda earned her Master of Arts in Global Development and Justice from Multnomah University in 2017. Prior to working for Oregon Child Welfare, Amanda was contracted into Child Welfare as a co-located Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocate. In her five years with Oregon Child Welfare, Amanda has held roles from protective services to screening abuse reports, all prior to her current position in ORCAH’s Training and Program team.
Devon Linville (he/him/his) is a Coaching and Training Specialist at the Oregon Child Abuse Hotline (ORCAH). In this role he delivers trainings to both new and established screeners to ensure the practice of screening calls of child abuse and neglect is done in a manner consistent with Oregon Revised Statute, Administrative Rules, and Child Welfare Procedure. In addition to training, Devon provides hands on coaching to both new and established employees to assist and improve their screening practice.
Devon completed his Bachelor of Science in political science from the University of Oregon as a Pathway Oregon scholar in 2019. Devon has worked in child welfare beginning as a Case Aide, then Permanency Worker, then a Screener at ORCAH, and now a Coaching and Training Specialist at ORCAH. Devon enjoys reality television, his dog, and playing soccer.
Rey Magdaluyo is a Coaching and Training Specialist (CTS) with the Oregon Child Abuse Hotline (ORCAH) where he hires and onboards new team members, delivers curriculum, assist in the development and application of training materials, and provides one on one coaching and consulting for both incoming and established staff and supervisors. In addition to his work with ORCAH, Rey has over 15 years of management, staff development, and training experience with a focus on customer service and engagement.
Penny Michel is a Development and Facilitation Specialist at the Alliance. She is member of a team who is responsible for development and facilitation of pre-licensing and continuing education trainings for licensed caregivers, kinship caregivers, adoptive parents and community members. She began her career in early childhood education and transitioned into the human services field. This experience provided an opportunity to work in positions as a licensor for childcare and foster care. She came to the Alliance in 2014 and became a Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Practitioner in 2019. She received her Masters of Social Work (MSW) from UW-Seattle and completed the process to become a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LISCW.)
Reneé brings years of experience in working with families to her position with the Alliance. Currently she is involved in developing and training curriculum for special trainings around effects of trauma, children and youth along with attachment and family. She works as part of the Strive team, where she trains Family Time Navigators in the Strive curriculum to help parents have productive family time with their children. Reneé coaches and mentors’ navigators helping them gain skills to use while working with families. Attending the Advanced Standing MSW program at EWU, she did her practicum in the Adoptions unit of Child Welfare. She has always had a heart for families, but this experience deepened her desire to help people who have experienced trauma and her dedication to work in attachment. Becoming certified in Circle of Security and Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) has impacted many people she has worked with. If you ask her what the answer is, she will tell you “relationship.”
Tami McCalip, MSW is an academic coordinator for the Northern Academy at UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education-Human Services, where she provides training, consultation, and technical assistance to county child welfare agencies. She specializes in Safety Organized Practice, Common Core training, Structured Decision Making, Continuous Quality Improvement, Child and Family Services Reviews, Family Engagement/Assessment and Leadership Development. She has more than 23 years’ experience working in social services including 7 years in the CalWORKs program and 7 years in childwelfare services as a social worker, resource family educator and administrative analyst.
Emma Worldpeace Black, MSW is an Academic Coordinator with the UC Davis Northern Academy. Emma is the project lead for Child and Family Teaming, the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS), Family Time Coaching, Substance Use Disorder, and Extended Foster Care. Emma worked in public child welfare in Northern California for nearly a decade, serving as a social worker and supervisor across several programs. Emma values integrating healing-centered engagement and lived experience into training and workforce development.
Shana is the Lead Mentor Coordinator for the Alliance CaRES program. CaRES is the Washington state caregiver education, retention, and support program serving foster parents, licensed and unlicensed kinship caregivers. In her role with CaRES, Shana oversees the CaRES Mentors and the development and maintenance of the Topic Support Groups. Her work focuses on connecting people in ways that encourage inclusive, mutual, and ongoing growth. She holds a bachelor’s degree in health education and a Master’s of Education in educational leadership. Her career in adult learning began with a position as director of a small non-profit and instructor at a local college. These roles eventually transitioned into work as a learning development consultant. During that time, Shana became a licensed foster parent and joined the work of The Mockingbird Society as a HUB home where she discovered a passion for connecting and supporting foster parents. She joined Alliance CaRES when they launched in March of 2021 and loves the opportunity to continually adapt and improve the ways caregivers engage in support and education through the Topic Support Groups or with CaRES Mentors.
Kirstin O’Dell is the Child Welfare Workforce Evaluations Manager for the Child Welfare Partnership at Portland State University. For the past 20 years, her work has focused on the evaluation of training for child welfare staff, caregiver, and community partners. Ms. O'Dell has expertise developing competency-based evaluations using utilization focused and participatory approaches. She has worked with trainers and subject matter experts to develop knowledge and skill assessments, including five simulated practice experiences for new child welfare workers. She also has extensive experience developing effective quality assurance measures and feedback tools for training.