Jonathan Bradshaw
Professor, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, England, Multi-National Project: measuring and monitoring children’s wellbeing

Jonathan Bradshaw CBE is Professor of Social Policy at the University of York, England. His research has mainly focused on poverty and the social exclusion of families with children in the UK and comparatively. Recently he has been working on a series of international comparisons of child wellbeing, one of which was published by UNICEF in 2007. Among other activities he is advisor to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee. He has a grandson in Sydney.

Mark E. Courtney
Professor and Executive Director, Partners for Our Children, School of Social Work, University of Washington

Mark E. Courtney holds the Ballmer Chair for Child Wellbeing in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. He is also Director of Partners for Our Children, a public-private partnership housed at the University of Washington devoted to improving child welfare services. Dr. Courtney previously served on the faculties of the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Much of his research has focused on child welfare services and policy. His current work includes studies of the adult functioning of former foster children, experimental evaluation of independent living services for foster youth, and the experiences of families involved in welfare-to-work programs.

He obtained his MSW and PhD degrees from the School of Social Welfare at the University of California at Berkeley. Before moving into academia, he worked for several years in various capacities providing group home care to abused and neglected adolescents. Dr. Courtney has served as a consultant to the federal
government, state departments of social services, local public and private child welfare agencies around the country, as well as the philanthropic community.

Diane DePanfilis
Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Research, Director, Ruth H. Young Center for Families and Children, School of Social Work, University of Maryland

Diane DePanfilis PhD, MSW is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work where she teaches social work practice, advanced clinical practice with families and children, and child welfare research courses in the MSW program. She also runs an Outcomes Measurement Seminar in the Doctoral program. Over the past twenty-eight years, she has (1) provided child welfare services at the local level as a caseworker, supervisor
and administrator; (2) worked as a consultant at the national level conducting program evaluations and providing training and technical assistance to social workers and other disciplines; and (3) conducted extensive studies related to the delivery of child protective services and the prevention of child maltreatment.

Cindy Blackstock
Executive Director, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada

A member of the Gitksan Nation, Cindy Blackstock has worked in the field of child and family services for over 20 years. Key research interests include exploring the over representation of Aboriginal children in child welfare care, structural drivers of child maltreatment in First Nations communities, children’s rights and the role of the voluntary sector and philanthropic organizations in expanding the range of culturally and community based responses to child maltreatment. Current professional interests include: a coconvenor of the Indigenous Sub Group of the NGO Working Group on the Rights of the Child, co-director of the Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare and a board member of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada.

Robert Chaskin
Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, Chapin Hall Centre for Children

Robert Chaskin, PhD is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration and a research fellow at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University. His research focuses primarily on the role of community and community-based efforts to improve the lives of children, youth, and families. Among other topics, his publications have explored the conceptual foundations and principal strategies of contemporary community practice; issues of participation, planning, and neighbourhood governance; efforts at promoting community youth development; and approaches to knowledge utilization and the challenges of learning from complex community initiatives.

Marianne Berry
Professor of Social Welfare, University of Kansas

Dr. Berry Ph.D., ACSW, is a Professor of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas e received her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of California in 1990. She has served as the Research Director of interdisciplinary research offices at two universities: The Center for Child Welfare at the University of Texas at Arlington, and the Office of Child Welfare Research and Development at the University of Kansas. She has published over 80 manuscripts in her 20-year academic career, all in the area of child welfare services, with primary emphasis in adoptions and supportive services to families. She is one of 24 Child Welfare Research Fellows recognized by the United States Children’s Bureau since 1996.

Dr. Berry has conducted many process and outcome evaluations of services to children and families, including a federally-funded study of adoption disruption among special needs children and their families, and many state- and foundation-funded evaluations of programs to prevent the placement of children into foster care,   In the past year, she was recognized by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare as having developed an assessment tool rated in the top five measures for evidence-based child welfare research and practice.

Scottye J. Cash
Associate Professor of Social Work, Ohio State University

Scottye J. Cash, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the Ohio State University College of Social Work. Dr. Cash is a child welfare researcher with an expertise in risk assessment and family preservation services.