Seattle — Casey Family Programs appoints Dr. America Bracho, Dennis F. Hightower, and David “Dave” C. Mills as its newest trustees. The foundation’s seven-member board of trustees is responsible for managing a $2.5 billion endowment and directing the organization’s 2020 Strategy to improve the lives of children in foster care.
The 2020 Strategy has three goals:
- To safely reduce the number of children in foster care in half by the year 2020
- To reinvest savings to strengthen the child welfare system
- To improve the lives of youth in foster care so they can become self-sufficient, healthy adults
The foundation is putting its 2020 Strategy into action by providing direct service to children in foster care and by working with child welfare agencies and policymakers.
America Bracho, M.P.H., C.D.E, is executive director and founder of Latino Health Access in Santa Ana, Calif., a community-based center promoting healthy living and disease prevention. Bracho is a native of Venezuela, where she practiced medicine for several years before coming to the U.S. to receive training in public health from the University of Michigan. She is a dedicated and passionate doctor who has leveraged her intellect, education and vitality around children’s health and welfare issues, as well as HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. Bracho served on the task force on health disparities for the Kellogg Foundation and is an advisory committee member for the Marguerite Casey Foundation.
Dennis Hightower, former president of Walt Disney Television & Telecommunications, rejoins the foundation’s board. After many years in leadership positions in some of the best-known businesses in the world, Hightower devotes much of his retirement to educational and children’s issues, including literacy, youth development, and financial support to college-bound students. Following his retirement from business, Hightower taught at Harvard Business School for four years and continues to mentor college students and young professionals. Hightower previously served on the board of Casey Family Programs for four years.
Dave Mills served as executive director and chief executive officer of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, retiring in May 2007. Mills directed the Wisconsin Retirement System investment of assets ($90 billion), six small state-sponsored trust funds, and short-term cash management for state and local units of government. In addition to his investment acumen, Mills brings seven years of experience with the Department of Health and Social Services in Wisconsin, where he directed the state’s Bureau for Children, Youth and Families overseeing such areas as foster care, adoption, child abuse and neglect, and child care.
“We are very fortunate to have these three national leaders join our board,” said Gary Severson, chairman of the board for Casey Family Programs. “Their unique expertise and commitment to children’s issues will help us move forward our 2020 Strategy to improve the lives of children in or at risk of entering foster care.”
Current members of the foundation’s board of trustees include Gary R. Severson, chair, Shelia Evans-Tranumn, Sharon L. McDaniel-Lowe, and Joan B. Poliak. The president and CEO of Casey Family Programs is William C. Bell.