James Freeman
USA

James Freeman, MA, CYC-P is a member of the Board of Governors and serves as a consulting editor for CYC-Net. He’s a father of three and has over 30 years of experience serving kids and families in afterschool, camping, education, and mental health settings. He is past president of the Child and Youth Care Certification Board, advisor for the Association for Child and Youth Care Practice, and former board member for the Association of Children’s Residential Centers. James has a master’s degree in organizational leadership and was awarded a career achievement award from the National Staff Development and Training Association. He provides direct care and leadership training at www.training-grounds.net

Zeni Thumbadoo
SOUTH AFRICA

Zeni Thumbadoo has dedicated her working life to the children’s sector in South Africa – in direct service provision, contributing to children’s policy and legislation, advocacy and model development. She has worked in a children’s home, as a consultant to the Department of Social Development, as a trainer in child and youth care work and as a coordinator of a process of piloting of innovative projects linked to transformed policy in the building of children’s services in the democratic South Africa. Since 1997 she has worked as the Deputy Director of the National Association of Child Care Workers. She has contributed to the professionalization of child and youth care work through: spearheading various advocacy campaigns linked to the statutory recognition of the child and youth care field; serving on the Standards Generating Body for Child and Youth Care Work which developed national standards for the training of child and youth care workers; serving on the statutory regulatory body, the Professional Board for Child and Youth Care; and representing South African child and youth care work in various national and international forums. Zeni is currently further championing the recognition of child and youth care work through the national scale up of the Isibindi model which aims to develop 10,000 child and youth care workers serving 1.4 million children in a five year period. Zeni completed her Master’s degree in child and youth care work with distinction and is currently registered as a doctoral student. She serves as the Vice Chairperson on the Steering Committee of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance and also a member of the Board of Directors on CYC Net. Zeni is also a honourary lecturer at the Durban University of Technology in South Africa.

Okpara Rice
USA

Okpara Rice joined Tanager Place as executive director in July, 2013, and assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer July, 2015. Rice also brings leadership experience from his work at the Jewish Child Care Association in Pleasantville, New York, the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls in Chicago, and the Youth Campus in Park Ridge, Ill.  

He is active in the field and in the community and currently serves as the Immediate Past President of the Board of Directors for the Association of Children’s Residential Centers. He is a member of the Marion Cares Board, NAMI of Linn County Board of Directors, a member of the Cedar Rapids School Board Diversity Committee and a member of the Linn County Juvenile Detention and Diversion Advisory Committee.

Okpara has also presented internationally on issues that affect children in both Europe and Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Loyola University and a Master of Social Work from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.

He also holds an Executive Management certification from Georgetown University. Okpara lives in Marion, Iowa with his wife Julie and two sons Malcolm and Dylan.

Professor Jennifer Davidson
SCOTLAND

Jennifer Davidson is the Director of the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS) that promotes quality experiences for children, young people and their families in public care.  Her interests involve children’s daily lived experiences in care alongside guarantees of international rights in child and youth care practice. From Canada, the United States and the UK, Jen has held practitioner, academic, policy and leadership positions in child and youth care, social work and professional education. She also enjoys the fun of raising two boys with her partner Andrew.

Professor Leon C Fulcher
NEW ZEALAND

Leon has worked for more than forty years as a social worker in residential child and youth care work and foster care in several parts of the world. Leon has specialised in working across cultures and geographies, team working and caring for caregivers, as well as supervision and promoting learning with adult carers.

Ziigwanbinesii Charles
TURTLE ISLAND, CANADA

Ziigwanbinesii Charles is Mukwa (bear) clan and comes from Mnjikaning Chippewas of Rama First Nation.

Ziigwanbinesii was born and raised in beautiful Nogojiwanong (Peterborough), Ontario and is passionate about strengthening Indigenous identity and connection to community. It is a priority for them to educate Organizations on how to incorporate best practices for First Nations children and youth while breaking down stereotypes and misinformation about Indigenous Peoples. 

It is a passion to educate individuals about the beauty, resiliency, strength and validity of First Nations culture and traditions. Ziigwanbinesii uses their cultural teachings of love, kindness, authenticity, and reciprocity to guide their practice in Child and Youth Care.

Ziigwanbinesii is a strong advocate for cultural specific methods to be incorporated for Indigenous children and youth to support their individual healing journey. This includes Nation specific traditional practices, oral history, language, on the land access, ceremonies and connection to community.

Simon Walsh
AUSTRALIA

Simon Walsh is the CEO of Allambi Care in NSW, Australia. He has been married to his wonderful wife Martina since 2000 and they have been gifted with four amazing sons. Initially trained as a Nurse in the mental health field, Simon began working for Allambi Care as a Child Youth Care Worker in 1998. As the organisation evolved from a crisis refuge into a multi service agency providing Family Support, Foster Care, Disability and Residential Care services, Simon undertook further studies along with his more senior roles in the organisation. Simon approaches his work from a relational, needs-based model of care. He gains great satisfaction from working with a cohesive multidisciplinary team and seeing positive results achieved by children, young people and families. He attributes much of the agency’s success to his immediate team as well as national and international relationships with industry leaders, established through an array of organisations such as CYC-Net.

 

Dr Kiran Modi
INDIA

With a doctorate in American Literature from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and as co-author of a series of books on Life Skills and Health for children, Dr Kiran Modi is a person of varied interests, including the media and children’s theatre as well as being a founding member of several Trusts and Foundations working for the disadvantaged in India.
Besides direct work with Child and Youth Care, in the Udayan Ghar Programme,  in UDAYAN CARE, a 22-year-old Trust, Dr Modi is also the Founding Editor of the bi-annual journal, 'Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond', focused on South Asia. Through direct work, running group homes for children and aftercare programmes for youth, writing papers and organising training programmes, seminars and conferences, she has been advocating for better standards of care in Child and Youth Care practices across India and South Asia region

Andy Leggett
CANADA

Andy Leggett is the CEO is Broken Arrow Residential Treatment Services.

Lee Loynes
SOUTH AFRICA

Lee Loynes is CEO of Girls and Boys Town, South Africa. Lee joined GBT South Africa in 1993 and has been at the helm of the organisation since 2007.  Prior to that, her career focused on clinical work with high risk families and youth and consulting and training to the Child and Youth Care field. Lee feels honoured to be a role player in the youth-care field where her goal is to find solutions that help challenged youth get a better chance at life – and Shine. She has served on the CYC-Net Board since 2009.  Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Work from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg; a Master of Science in Child and Youth Care Administration from Nova University in the US and is working towards completing her PhD.

 
Kari Sisson
USA

Kari Sisson is Executive Director at the Association for Children’s Residential Centers, USA. Kari came to ACRC in 2007 from a role in public child welfare in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With the support of an amazing board of directors, she has had the honor of providing a voice for children’smental health and the inherent need for a healthy and accessible system of care. She has moved the association to an international platform, including and embracing colleagues from around the world who skillfully serve the complex needs of children and families. Kari and her team provide leadership on best practices, clinical excellence, public policy, and healthy child-serving systems. A long time foster and adoptive parent, Kari and her husband David parent nine beautiful children and remain active in their community, supporting children and families with housing insecurity.

Mark Strother
USA

Mark Strother, M.A. Ed., is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Cal Farley’s in Amarillo, Texas. His areas of special interest are in Adventure-Based experiential programming (including Equestrian Assisted Growth and Learning), trauma informed care, the application of brain research, and the utilization of technology. Mark has been married 23 years to Deb and has four children.

Martin Stabrey
SOUTH AFRICA

Martin Stabrey is the Chief Operations Officer of CYC-Net and The CYC-Net Press and managing editor of CYC-Online.

Martin lives in Cape Town, South Africa and is married to Helen. They have two daughters, Kirsten and Tamara.

He is a product of the South African child and youth care system, having spent most of his childhood at St. John's Hostel, Cape Town.

He studied Economics and Information Systems at the University of South Africa.

Dr Tuhinul Islam
BANGLADESH

Originally a ‘forester’ by initial training, Tuhinul decided to change the course of his career, through a chance visit to a children’s education centre in a slum of Khulna district in Bangladesh. He was awarded a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy for a thesis entitled ‘Residential Child Care: The Experiences of Young People in Bangladesh' from the University of Edinburgh, UK. Tuhinul also has an MA in International Child Welfare from the University of East Anglia, UK and an MBA in Human Resource Management. He has over 20 years of leadership, operational and strategic management, teaching, research and practice experience in the fields of residential child care, child welfare management, child protection, brothel, sex workers, orphanages, madrasah, gender, education, healthcare and development in Bangladesh, Malaysia and the UK.  

Currently Tuhinul is a Senior Research Fellow (part-time) at Northern University Bangladesh; a Director (part-time) of Education and Child Development Programmes of a national NGO in Bangladesh serving over 500000 children and their families and a Technical Director (part-time) of a Children’s Home catering service for over 1200 indigenous children. He has preferred to work within NGOs, education and research organizations together in order to have a better understanding of the issues affecting children and their families thus to bridge the gap between academia, practitioner organizations and policy-makers in order to strengthen the rights of children.  

Tuhinul has been part of several Government appointed committees and NGO networks to influence policy reforms in Child and Youth Care in Bangladesh for example, rules of Children Act 2013; child friendly space (CFS) and alternative child care policy.

Mukate Maiingun Gabo Ikwe (Jessica Hadley)
CANADA

 is Migizi (Eagle) clan and lives in Winnipeg, MB, Canada with her husband and son.

She has worked in the field of youth care for over 15 years and is a past President of the Child and Youth Care Workers Association of Manitoba.  

She is passionate about the field of CYC and the children, youth, and families that she has had the privilege of serving.