Meet the 2023 Leadership Honorees
These awards recognize leaders who have had a significant impact in improving outcomes for children and families and building Communities of Hope across America.
Select the photo below to read more about the year’s honorees.
Gail C. Christopher
Dr. Gail C. Christopher is the executive director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity (NCHE) and is widely known for her work to infuse holistic health and diversity concepts into public sector programs and policy discourse. She has authored or co-authored three books and has written a monthly column in the Federal Times and hundreds of articles, presentations and publications. In her time at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, she served as senior advisor and vice president for program strategy. Dr. Christopher was the driving force behind the America Healing initiative and the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation effort. In 2017, Dr. Christopher launched the Ntianu Center for Healing and Nature. In 2019, she joined NCHE and became a Senior Scholar with George Mason University’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. Dr. Christopher was elected by the APHA Governing Council to serve as the American Public Health Association’s Honorary Vice President for the United States in 2021. She currently chairs the Board of the Trust for America’s Health and has served as vice president of the Office of Health, Women and Families in Washington, D.C., and as executive director of the Institute for Government Innovation at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Mark Harris and Michelle Gros
Mark Harris is the executive director of the Pelican Center for Children and Families. He has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for outstanding efforts in promoting the safety, permanency and well-being of Louisiana’s at-risk children. Michelle Gros is the chief operating officer for the Pelican Center and Strategic Plan coordinator for the Louisiana Court Improvement Program. She is passionate about improving the foster care system and adoption process and has personal experience as a foster and adoptive parent. In their work, Harris and Gros focus on centering the needs of families and communities. One of the biggest examples is the development of My Community Cares (MCC), which was inspired by the Children’s Bureau’s vision to shift from a reactive system to one centered on family strengthening. Stakeholders in child welfare, law and the communities themselves were impassioned to develop strategies to serve families before they became entangled with child protective systems. Over the past two years, MCC has partnered with thousands of families to co-design solutions to their challenges and keep children from entering or remaining in foster care. MCC has expanded to nine regions in Louisiana.
Kathleen A. Quigley
The Hon. Kathleen A. Quigley’s distinguished career has had a profoundly positive impact on youth and families. She has served as a judicial officer in juvenile court since 2003, was appointed to the Pima County Superior Court bench by the governor in 2012, and from 2014-2020 she served as the Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Court. In 2019, Judge Quigley learned of Casey Family Programs’ work to establish Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) courts and worked in partnership on the creation of an ICWA Court in Pima County. The team focuses on placing out-of-home children with family or tribal families, building cultural awareness, ensuring ICWA is followed and establishing relationships with tribes. Much of Judge Quigley’s work nationally and in Arizona has been centered on keeping families together and improving the system. Two examples of her collaborative work included co-creating the Southern Arizona Transnational Task Force in 2014 and leading the development of the Dependency Alternative Program, which launched in 2015. Judge Quigley serves on the Board of Directors of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and on the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness.
Sonia Rodriguez True
The Hon. Sonia Rodriguez True began serving as a judge in Yakima County Superior Court in September 2022, appointed by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to fill a vacancy on the court. Prior to her appointment, she became the first Latino court commissioner in Yakima County in late 2020. As an attorney, Judge Rodriguez True provided pro-bono legal consultation via Legal Options Clinic in partnership with Catholic Charities, where she assisted relative and fictive kinship families to prevent those children from entering the child welfare system. She volunteered her legal services to Casey’s Yakima Field Office and trained other attorneys on family law related to guardianship. Judge Rodriguez True has served on many boards related to children and families, including Memorial Hospital and as board chair of United Way of Central Washington. In 2009 she was appointed to the Yakima City Council, where she served for one year. Judge Rodriguez True was raised by a single mother who became an attorney and inspired her to pursue a law career. She and her husband have welcomed over 20 children into their home at various times in the last six years for temporary and long-term care and are raising three children in a guardianship.
Family Foundation
The Sauer Family Foundation (SFF) is a private foundation that serves children in Minnesota who are at risk of experiencing abuse or neglect, exposed to trauma, or have challenges developing reading, writing or math skills. The foundation also makes grants for workforce diversification. In 2021, SFF founders and leadership committed significant resources to focus on child welfare transformation, turning their focus to addressing systemic racism and developing community-based prevention services so vulnerable families get their needs met without being reported to child protection. This commitment follows earlier work with child welfare leaders with a goal of creating a child well-being framework focused on the domains of physical, social, emotional, cultural and spiritual well-being. The SFF has funded a number of initiatives, including a family-finding tool being used across the country that helps social workers find family for foster youth more quickly and effectively. Other projects include the Quality Parenting Initiative, which enables connections between birth and foster parents, and a collection of Family Resource Centers. They are also funding the evaluation of youth-centered supports for young adults in supportive housing for those aging out of foster care, believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S., a project that heavily involves the voices of affected youth.
