Looking for ways to support or get involved with the upEND Movement? Here are FIVE ways that YOU can get involved and help us to co-create this effort.

Abby Abinanti (she/her)

Yurok Chief Judge

Abby Abinanti, Yurok Chief Judge, is an enrolled Yurok Tribal member, she holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of New Mexico School of Law, and was the first California tribal woman to be admitted to the State Bar of California. She was a State Judicial Officer (Commissioner) for the San Francisco Superior Court for over 17 years assigned to the Unified Family Court (Family/Dependency/Delinquency). She retired from the Superior Court in September 2011 and on July 31, 2014 was reappointed as a part-time Commissioner for San Francisco assigned to Dependency, and Duty Judge for that Court where she served until 2015. She has been a Yurok Tribal Court Judge since 1997 and was appointed Chief Tribal Court Judge in 2007, a position she held in conjunction with her Superior Court assignment until 2015.

Ned Breslin (he/him)

Chief Executive Officer, Tennyson Center

Ned has been able to convert his experiences with trauma from abuse and neglect, his deep feelings of abandonment, judgement and isolation, along with his navigation of multiple non-bio homes towards work that changes systems, relentlessly focuses on including all, and helps people re- imagine pathways to healing.

For 27 years, Ned focused on international water and sanitation and launched a global initiative called Everyone Forever that

forced sector changes in how programs were implemented, outcomes achieved and funding flowed so that every family, school and clinic had water supply (Everyone) and never needed international aid or philanthropy (Forever) again. By the end of this year over 30 million people will have benefited from Everyone Forever, and $2.5 billion of annual spend has converted to support this work globally, and earned Ned the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2011.

Leonard Burton (he/him)

Senior Fellow, CSSP

Leonard Burton is a Senior Fellow at Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), where he serves on the Systems Change and Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Teams. He works on the Youth Thrive and the getREAL initiatives, advancing ideas and equitable practices and policies that support healthy development and well-being for youth connected to child welfare and other intervening human services systems.

Leonard has nearly three decades of executive leadership in community change, child welfare, faith-based programs, juvenile justice, youth development, and systems improvement. Prior to joining CSSP, Leonard served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the private operating foundation Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative for nine years. There he channeled his energy and exceptional administrative and leadership skills to fundamentally change the landscape in this country as it relates to youth transitioning to adulthood from foster care.

Prior to that, Leonard served as Assistant Commissioner of Child Welfare and Regional Services, and several other leadership positions with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS). There, he helped lay the foundation for reforming Tennessee’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems and played an integral role in reducing reliance on congregate care, improving engagement with families, and spearheading a new model of casework practice.

During his career, Leonard has also worked in several community and faith-based prevention/intervention programs as a leader and advocate for children and families.

Leonard is a proud native of Detroit, MI and member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity Inc., an ordained minister and veteran of the US Army, and served a tour of duty in Saudi Arabia during operation Desert Storm. He currently serves on the boards of the prestigious Black Administrators in Child Welfare (BACW) and leading research organization WestEd. Leonard holds a Master’s Degree in Education-administration and supervision from Tennessee State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Austin Peay State University.

Leon D. Caldwell, Ph.D.

Founder and Managing Partner, Ujima Developers

Dr. Leon D. Caldwell, has transformed his career to include a real estate development as a form of scholar-activism. His brand of holistic equitable development is rooted in social entrepreneurism. He has been in real estate for over 15 years as an investor and developer. West Philadelphia born and raised, he received a BA in Economics and M.Ed. in School Counseling from Lehigh University, and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Penn State. After his graduate degree he held a staff psychologist position at the University of California, Irvine. Leon has held rank and tenure as an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln; University of Memphis; and directed a community research center at Rhodes College. After a successful career as an Associate Professor, award winning community-based researcher, national thought leader on Black men and boys’ health, social entrepreneur, and Senior Leader in the Philanthropic sector and author with over 50 national and international publications he established Ujima Developers, LLC as a public health intervention for blighted neighborhoods.

Ujima Developers seeks to contribute its unique brand of social impact development as an approach to re-designing neighborhoods for the optimal health of all residents.

Kimm R. Campbell (she/her)

Broward County Assistant County Administrator

Kimm R. Campbell holds a Master’s degree and clinical licensure in Social Work and has over 24 years of experience in public administration and human services within state and local governments. She has provided leadership, direct services, and consultative services in adult and child mental health, child welfare, special education, juvenile justice, domestic violence, homelessness, and substance abuse. Kimm has designed family support services frameworks for housing authorities, standardized supportive services within school districts, and created detention transition services for incarcerated youth. She has established statewide standards for domestic violence abuser treatment programs and participated in the development of state children’s mental health plans that reduce the reliance on inappropriate group home and residential treatment for children who should be served in their communities. Kimm also wrote Community Practice Standards for public and private child serving agencies, which was adopted by the state of North Carolina, streamlined processes for court ordered forensic evaluations, and developed guidelines for juvenile court judges to use in determining best course of action for court involved youth and their families. Most recently, she is responsible for the creation of the Dismantling Racism Initiative in Broward County, within which the Racial Equity in Child Welfare Taskforce is situated.

Kimm is currently a Broward County Assistant County Administrator with oversight responsibilities for various departments, divisions, and offices across the County enterprise. Additionally, Kimm is a national consultant working with the US Department of Justice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and various State Disability Rights Firms.  She serves as Chair of the Broward County Suicide Prevention Coalition, is a member of the Board of Directors for Broward Behavioral Health Coalition and OIC of South Florida and is a member of the Coordinating Council of Broward.

Kimm is most passionate about social justice and race equity and approaches her work from these perspectives to create lasting community change.  She was recognized by Legacy Magazine as one of 25 Most Influential & Prominent Black Women in Business and Industry in 2017 and was the 2019 recipient of the Urban League Margaret Roach Humanitarian Award, as well as the recipient of the 2020 Trailblazer Award from Broward Community and Family Healthcare Centers, Inc.

Priscilla Day (she/her)

Professor, Social Work and Principal Investigator, Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare Studies

Priscilla A. Day, MSW, Ed.D., Anishinaabe and enrolled tribal member, Leech Lake Reservation, MN and is a tenured full professor at the Department of Social Work, University of Minnesota Duluth (1993-2020). Dr. Day is the Principal Investigator for the Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare Studies whose mission is “to advance the well-being of children by strengthening families and communities through social work education, research, and outreach in the region.” She is an advisory board member for the Children’s Bureau Capacity Building Center for Tribes, consultant for the Center for Native Child and Family Resilience, and tribal lead for the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute. Dr. Day’s area of research is American Indian family preservation. She is the mother of three and grandmother of 10 children.

Alan Dettlaff (he/him)

Dean, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work

Alan J. Dettlaff is Dean of the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston and the inaugural Maconda Brown O’Connor Endowed Dean’s Chair. Prior to entering academia, Dean Dettlaff worked in the child welfare system as a caseworker and an administrator, where he specialized in investigations of maltreatment. He received his bachelor’s degree in social work from TCU, and master’s in social work and PhD from the University of Texas at Arlington. Dean Dettlaff’s research focuses on addressing and eliminating the impacts of structural and institutional racism on Black children and families involved in the child welfare system.

Cheryl Fairbanks (she/her)

Interim Executive Director of the UNM Native American Budget and Policy Institute

Cheryl Demmert Fairbanks, Esq. works in the area of Indian law as an attorney and tribal court of appeals justice. Currently she is the Interim Executive Director of the UNM Native American Budget and Policy Institute. She recently served as the Walter R. Echo-Hawk Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark and was also a visiting Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico’s Southwest Indian Law Clinic. Formerly a Partner at Cuddy McCarthy LLP, she had a general practice in Indian law, including tribal-state relations, personnel, tribal courts, peacemaking and family conferencing, mediation, family, school, education, and indigenous law.

Cheryl is Tlingit-Tsimshian and was born in Ketchikan, Alaska. She obtained her BA from Fort Lewis College in 1969 and her JD in 1987 from the University of New Mexico. Prior to her law career, she served as a teacher for the Albuquerque Public Schools, Zia Day School, and Administrator for Acomita Day School and the Albuquerque/Santa Fe Indian Schools.

Alan-Michael Graves (he/him)

Director of National Programs, Good+Foundation

Dr. Alan-Michael S. Graves serves as the Director of National Programs with Good Plus Foundation where he focuses on a broad range of multidisciplinary activities, from research and program development to training and advocacy for policy change. Currently leading a National Fatherhood Initiative on policy change and training social workers in Los Angeles County on Fatherhood Engagement, Alan-Michael has worked in the human services field, with extensive experience as a facilitator and administrator, for both public and private agencies, for the past 17 years. He has brought these diverse perspectives to his work helping agencies develop, implement and evaluate interagency systems of care, family partnerships and community programming. With a doctorate in Educational Leadership, Dr. Graves utilizes his knowledge and expertise to strategically and positively impact the lives of children through his work with parents.

Tymber Hudson (they/she)

Youth Organizer

Tymber Hudson (they/she) is a speaker, strategist, and multidisciplinary artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Prior to their role at Hugh Lane, Tymber served as the LGBTQ+ policy associate at the Biden Foundation. Tymber managed a national public education and storytelling campaign, facilitated youth round tables centering the experiences of young people with intersectional identities, and provided technical assistance and research support to other national youth-serving organizations working to implement LGBTQ+ inclusion and equity into their programs, policies, and practices. Tymber also served as a Congressional Intern for Congresswoman Karen Bass. Tymber is deeply committed to centering the voices and experiences of Black LGBTQ+ youth impacted by the foster care system.

Joyce McMillan (she/her)

Parent Advocate and Founder, PLAN (Parent Legislative Action Network)

Joyce McMillan is a thought leader, advocate, activist, community organizer, and educator. Her mission is to remove systemic barriers in communities of color by bringing awareness to the racial disparities in systems where people of color are disproportionately affected. Joyce believes the conversation about systemic oppression must happen on all levels consistently before meaningful change can occur. She completed a restorative certificate program at the New School and believes change will not happen independently of healing. Her ultimate goal is to abolish systems of harm while creating concrete community resources.

Joyce leads child welfare family engagement and advocacy efforts at Sinergia Inc. Prior, she was the Program Director at Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP) where she created a community space, to educate the community about restorative practices to empower, affirm, transform and heal communities of color that have been traumatized by systemic injustices.

Joyce is an active member of The West Harlem Democrats, a board member at Families Together NYS, Women’s Prison Association (WPA), and Movement for Family Power, Co-chair of W134th Community Association, a NYC County Committee Member, a Supreme Court Judicial Delegate and an Advisory Committee member at The Center for New York City Affairs (CNYCA) at The New School, where she also has a visiting fellowship.  As a visiting fellow Joyce explores ways to strengthen the parent voice in child welfare and has led a series of public events where panelists discussed not just the problems but suggested solutions. In addition, Joyce has a Fellowship with Law4Black Lives where she is exploring what it means to divest in systems while investing in communities. Joyce is a former fellow with The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls where she reimagined communities without system harm. Joyce is the Founder of Parent Legislative Action Network (PLAN), a coalition that won monumental change to New York’s State Central Registry

Judith Meltzer (she/her)

President, CSSP

Judith Meltzer is the President of the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) and is responsible for developing the overall vision and direction of the Center and, in conjunction with the staff and leadership team, driving the future vision of CSSP. With a particular focus on improving the ways in which public systems support families and ensure children are able to grow up in safe, stable families, Judy brings considerable experience in work related to child and family well-being and public system reform, strategies for community change and local, state and federal policy initiatives.

Judy’s earlier work focused on the development of policies and strategies for child welfare reform and the development of community partnerships for the protection of children. She serves as the federal Court appointed Monitor of the District of Columbia’s child welfare system and New Jersey’s child welfare system, both of which are subject to oversight as the result of class action litigation.  She is co-monitor for a class action lawsuit governing reforms to South Carolina’s child welfare system, a member of a Co-Neutral team assessing reform in New Mexico and served as a member of a Technical Assistance Committee to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services established as part of a Court-ordered Settlement Agreement. Judy is one of a handful of pioneers seeking productive, less adversarial approaches to resolving class action child welfare litigation—in 2005, she was honored by the American Public Human Services Association for her work in this area as the recipient of the Peter Forsythe Award for Leadership in Public Child Welfare.

Judy previously served as CSSP’s Executive Vice President and has a Master’s Degree in Social Welfare Policy from the University of Chicago.

Maya Pendleton (she/her)

Policy Analyst, CSSP

Maya Pendleton supports CSSP’s work with public systems to increase well-being for children, youth, and families. As a member for CSSP’s Equity, Inclusion, and Justice team, Maya assists in building internal and external work and capacity around anti-racism and racial equity. Additionally, she sits on CSSP’s Policy and Systems Change teams, working to transform public systems and address root causes for the racial disparities that Black, Native, and Latinx communities experience. Prior to CSSP, Maya worked directly with children and youth with experiences in foster care. Maya completed her B.A. at Georgetown University in Government and African American Studies and completed her Master’s of Public Policy at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Administration, focusing specifically on social policy at the intersection of race and gender.

Lisa Sangoi (she/her)

Co-Founder and Co-Director, Movement for Family Power (Opening Keynote)

Lisa Sangoi is a co-founder and co-director of Movement for Family Power, an organization that fights the policing and punishment of families through the foster system.

Judge William A. Thorne, Jr. (he/him)

Judge William A. Thorne, Jr. (ret.), a Pomo/Coast Miwok Indian from northern California, was appointed to the Utah Court of Appeals in May 2000 by Gov. Michael O. Leavitt. He retired in September of 2013. He was a judge in the Third Circuit Court for eight years, having been appointed by Governor Norman Bangerter in 1986, and then served in the Third District Court for six years, having been appointed by Governor Leavitt in 1994. Judge Thorne received a B.A. from the University of Santa Clara in 1974 and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1977. Judge Thorne has served for over 34 years as a tribal court judge in Utah, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nevada, California, Nebraska, and Michigan. He is the former president and current vice-president of the National Indian Justice Center (a nonprofit that trains tribal court and other personnel around the country), and a former member of the Board of Directors for National CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates, a nonprofit group that provides volunteer representation for abused and neglected children in court). He was formerly a member of PEW Commission on Children in Foster Care, the Board of Directors for the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (a nonprofit seeking to improve the level of research and practice related to adoptions), a former member of the Board of Trustees for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, a former board member for NACAC [North American Council on Adoptable Children], former Chair for the board of WestEd Inc. (a non-profit focusing on excellence and equity in education) and a former member of the ABA Steering Committee on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children. He is also a former member of the Utah Judicial Council, the Board of Circuit Court Judges, and the Board of Directors for the National American Indian Court Judge’s Association, and most recently ended his term as Chair of the Board for Child Trends, Inc. (a non-profit devoted to research dealing with children and families). He is also a former chair of the Utah Juvenile Justice Task Force of the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, former vice-chair of the Utah Board of Youth Corrections, former co-chair of the Judicial Council’s Committee on Improving Jury Service, former chair of the Judicial Council’s Bail Bonding Committee, former chair of the Court Technology Committee, former member of the Salt Lake County Domestic Violence Advisory Committee, and a former member of the steering committee for the Judicial Council’s Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Fairness. He is currently a member of the board for the Center for the Study of Social Policy, a member of the board for WestEd, Inc., a member of the Advisory Council for the Capacity Building Center for Tribes of the U.S. Children’s Bureau, and a member of the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and a member of the advisory board for the National Child Welfare Workforce Initiative. In 2016 the National Center for State Courts recognized Judge Thorne with their Distinguished Service Award.

Kristen Weber (she/her)

Director, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice, CSSP

Kristen Weber leads CSSP’s strategic vision for addressing equity internally at CSSP and provides external technical assistance to jurisdictions working to address racial inequities. She leads CSSP’s Institutional Analysis project (IA), a qualitative review process to analyze laws, policies and practices that contribute to poor outcomes for particular populations involved with child welfare systems. Kristen has conducted IAs and written accompanying papers about child welfare system contributors to racial disproportionality and disparities in achieving permanency experienced by African American and Latino children, youth, and families; systems’ responses to battered women and their children;  and system contributors to the lack of safety and affirmation experienced by LGBTQ+ youth and families.