Rachel Berger MD, MPH is the Medical Director of the Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families. Prior to starting in this position in July 2024, she spent over 25 years as a child abuse pediatrician at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and as a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh. Her clinical research has focused on decreasing fatalities and near-fatalities by improving identification, evaluation and reporting of suspected physical abuse. She served on the Task Force for Child Protection in Pennsylvania and was the research lead for the national Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (CECANF). She served as a senior policy fellow for Casey Family Programs in 2019; during that time, she focused on decreasing fatalities and near fatalities from child physical abuse by improving collaboration between medical professional and Child Protective Services.

Antonio Garcia, PhD is the Buckhorn Professor of Social Work at the University of Kentucky. As a former Child Protective Services Worker and Supervisor in Washington State, Dr. Garcia’s research and publication record to date has focused on understanding epidemiological trends related to children of color’s experiences in foster care; and etiological explanations for their increased risk of out-of-home displacement, and lack of access to and use of effective mental health interventions as compared to their Caucasian counterparts. In addition, his research interests involve addressing the complexities of immigration and child welfare system involvements among Latino youth and families; and understanding how and under what conditions providers and system leaders in child-serving agencies father, interpret, and use to scale-up evidence-based practices.

Richard Gehrman is the founder and executive director emeritus of the Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota. As part of his long career within human services, Mr. Gehrman has served as the chief finance and administrative officer for the Westchester County New York Department of Social Services, the Maryland Department of Human Resources, and the City of Saint Paul Minnesota. He has managed projects as a consultant for federal, state, county and municipal governments in areas related to health and human services. In these roles, he developed expertise in child welfare metrics, which he now works to combine with the power of citizen advocacy through Safe Passage.

John M. Leventhal, MD is a professor emeritus of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine. During his time at Yale, Dr. Leventhal was the medical director of the Child Abuse Program and Child Abuse Prevention Program at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital from 1982 to 2019. He also led the DART team (Detection, Assessment, Referral, and Treatment)—one of the oldest multidisciplinary child protection teams in the country. Under his leadership, the Yale Child Abuse Program developed a child sexual abuse clinic as well as a mental health program for sexually abused children and their non-offending caregivers. Dr. Leventhal has made significant contributions through his extensive research and scholarly pursuits and served as an expert resource to generations of pediatric providers on issues of child maltreatment.

Cathleen Palm is the founder of the Center for Children’s Justice. Ms. Palm has spent nearly three decades working to improve the way systems work to support children, youth, and families. She has served as a consultant with a variety of nonprofits, as well as to the Congressionally-created Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (CECANF). Ms. Palm has served as an appointed member of a variety of state-level initiatives, including the Governor’s Commission for Children and Families, Pennsylvania’s Children’s Trust Fund, the Joint State Government Commission’s Advisory Committee on Addiction Treatment and the Governor’s Early Learning Council.

Cassie Statuto-Bevan, Ed.D. worked for more than twenty years in senior positions in the U.S. House of Representatives including staff director on the Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Human Resources and senior policy advisor to Republican leadership offices. She was a principal staffer on numerous child welfare legislation not limited to the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Dr. Statuto-Bevan has been appointed to serve on the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, which was established by Congress in 2012, and prior to that on the U.S. Commission on Child and Family Welfare. Dr. Statuto-Bevan has been a lecturer at several universities including most recently as a Child Welfare Fellow at the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice and Research at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dee Wilson is the former director of Child Welfare Services for Casey Family Programs. Mr. Wilson worked for the public child welfare agency in Washington State from 1978 to 2004 in a variety of positions including CPS social worker, supervisor, area administrator, training director and regional administrator. He then served as director of the Northwest Institute for Children and Families at the University of Washington School of Social Work, before then becoming the director of child welfare training. Mr. Wilson speaks and writes on a wide range of child welfare issues. He now facilitates child welfare training part time and writes monthly commentaries on child welfare for his blog, The Sounding Board.

Viola Vaughan-Eden, PhD, MSW, MJ is a Professor and the PhD Program Director with the Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work at Norfolk State University, as well as the President and CEO of UP For Champions, a non-profit in partnership with The UP Institute, a think tank for upstream child abuse solutions. As a forensic and licensed clinical social worker, she serves as a consultant and expert witness in child maltreatment cases – principally sexual abuse. She has conducted more than 2500 child abuse evaluations and provided expert testimony more than 700 times. Dr. Vaughan-Eden is President Emerita of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, President Emerita of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence, and Past-President of the National Organization of Forensic Social Work.

Marie Cohen, MSW, served as a social worker in the District of Columbia’s child welfare system until 2015. After leaving that position, she created Child Welfare Monitor, a blog analyzing policy and practice in the child welfare system nationally, as well as a local blog, Child Welfare Monitor DC. She holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University and a master’s degree in social work.