Podcast Season 5

Morgan Ryan has worked in the child welfare field with Children's Home Society of Florida (CHS) for over 13 years, currently serving as the Unified Service Center Director for CaseAIM statewide. Prior to working with the CaseAIM team, she started as a Dependency Case Manager, moving into various roles with placement, diversion, and case management supervision within Central Florida.

Morgan attended Florida State University's College of Social Work, graduating with both her Master of Social Work degree in 2006 and Bachelor of Social Work degree in 2005. As an adoptee, she has always had a passion to help children in need, which led to choosing a career in social work and working with CHS.

Jackie Gonzalez has devoted the past 30 years advocating for children. She was on the forefront of the drive to change the child welfare model in Florida by relying on innovative data-driven approaches to improve the outcomes of children in care and systems management. Jackie achieved measurable successes using this approach. As Executive Director for the Southeastern Division of the Children's Home Society of Florida ("CHS"), she managed all programs/ services, including the organization's residential emergency shelter and its 11 group homes. In addition to providing strategic leadership for the services offered to vulnerable communities throughout Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties, she and her team established and implemented long-range goals, strategies, training plans and policies.

Jackie is currently serving as the President and Co-founder of Stabilify. She oversees Stabilify's customer, community, and governmental relations, as well as the company's strategic alliances with its child welfare partners. She also heads the company's consulting and training efforts. Jackie holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida, and a law degree from Nova Southeastern University Law Center.

Esther Jacobo, Esq. is the Director of Citrus Family Care Network, a division of Citrus Health Network, which serves as the Community Based Care Lead Agency for child welfare in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. She has been in that position since the inception of the contract award in July of 2019.

Most recently, Ms. Jacobo served as Chief Assistant State Attorney for Operations at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office serving under State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. Ms. Jacobo had numerous responsibilities including the Human Trafficking Unit, Career Criminal Unit, Juvenile Division, Community Prosecutions and Media Relations. She was also responsible for a number of Felony Divisions.

Prior to re-joining the State Attorney's Office, Ms. Jacobo was the Secretary for the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), a position to which she was appointed by Governor Scott.

Ms. Jacobo earned her Law Degree from St. Thomas University in Miami in 1992. That same year, Janet Reno appointed her to the Miami- Dade State Attorney's Office as an Assistant State Attorney. She served in several capacities. She litigated over 100 cases, including homicides and complex sexual batteries, of which over 60 were jury trials. Her assignments included Division Chief of the Domestic Crimes Unit, where she served before taking a position at the law firm of Elser & and Foster-Morales in 2007. Ms. Jacobo has dedicated her entire public service career to the safety and well-being of Florida's children and families and her community.

Molly Tierney is a Managing Director in Accenture's Health and Public Services team where she leads the strategy for improving the results for vulnerable children and families. She manages the child welfare portfolio for North America and is the executive producer of the firm's award-winning virtual reality learning method, AVEnueS. Prior to joining the firm, she spent a 25-year career in the public sector. Most recently, she spent 10 years as the Director for the Baltimore City Department of Social Services where she managed the City's child welfare and public assistance programs. There she championed a reform effort that dramatically improved the impact of services to vulnerable citizens of Baltimore, including reducing the number of children in foster care by more than 70%. She created a business model for the agency that is now considered a national model for modern social services. She spent 5 years in the City of Chicago where she designed and managed the social service programs that supported Mayor Richard M. Daley's major human service reform plans. Prior to that she spent 10 years in public child welfare systems in Illinois and in Washington DC. She holds a master's degree from Loyola University and is a fellow of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In addition to holding a leadership role at Accenture, she is a professor in the School of Social Policy at Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Baltimore with her family.

Kellee Hicks is a native of Charlotte, NC. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Hampton University and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In 2008, Kellee began her Child Welfare career at Mecklenburg County (NC) Department of Social Services- Youth and Family Services (YFS) Division as a Senior Social Worker in the Investigations service area.

In 2012, Kellee was promoted to supervision as a Blended Social Work Supervisor in which she was responsible for guiding a team of three Investigative Social Workers and two Family In-Home Social Workers. As a State Trainer with the Child Welfare Division of North Carolina Health and Human Services, Kellee provided state-wide consultative, guidance, and professional development training and education.

In 2018, Kellee was began her current role as the Senior Social Services Manager (SSSM) where she prides herself on building authentic relationships based on transparency and trust which serve as her management style to guide the Division's Staff Development Unit. Kellee truly believes in the overall Practice Model, specifically the belief statement: "how we do our work is as important as the work we do"! Kellee as well as members of the Continuous Quality Improvement team, Policy and Practice Model team, and Training team strive to exhibit the Mecklenburg County DSS core values daily in communication and social work practice.