Dr. Cindy Christian reprises her highly acclaimed 2015 David L. Chadwick Endowed Lecture on A Fine Balance, first delivered at the San Diego International Conference on Child Maltreatment. In this important presentation, Dr. Christian discusses the balances required in thinking about child welfare work: nurture vs. nature, children’s rights vs. parents’ rights, truth and lies, and rules and exceptions. The work of child protection requires constant consideration of alternatives, and balancing...

The United States has historically faced the challenge of responding to the needs of children without parents to provide for their care. The Orphan Train provides a historical context for today’s social, moral and legal crisis created by large numbers of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at our borders. The University of Pennsylvania’s Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research held a well-attended Community Symposium featuring three of the nation’s leading experts on...

Mimi Laver, Esq. Director of Legal Education at the ABA Center on Children and the Law and Director of the National Project to Improve Representation for Parents Involved in the Child Welfare System. Corey Shdaimah, LLM, PhD Associate Professor and Academic Coordinator of the JD/MSW dual degree program at the University of Maryland, School of Social Work and the author of Negotiating Justice: Legal Services Lawyers, Low-Income Clients, and the Quest for Social Change. Ronald E. Richter,...

Mimi Laver, Esq. Director of Legal Education at the ABA Center on Children and the Law and Director of the National Project to Improve Representation for Parents Involved in the Child Welfare System. Corey Shdaimah, LLM, PhD Associate Professor and Academic Coordinator of the JD/MSW dual degree program at the University of Maryland, School of Social Work and the author of Negotiating Justice: Legal Services Lawyers, Low-Income Clients, and the Quest for Social Change. Ronald E. Richter,...

This important colloquium helped to identify the unique challenges faced by foster youth who attend college and offer strategies to support their success.

Dorothy Roberts is the 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, George A. Weiss University Professor, and the inaugural Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights at the University of Pennsylvania, where she holds appointments in the Law School and Departments of Africana Studies and Sociology. An internationally recognized scholar, public intellectual, and social justice advocate, she has written and lectured extensively on the interplay of gender, race, and...

Dr. John Leventhal is Professor of Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine and the Yale Child Study Center, and is the Medical Director of the Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital Child Abuse Program. In 2010, Dr. Leventhal received the Ray Helfer Society Award for his distinguished achievement in the field of child abuse and neglect. He has published more than 140 articles and chapters and has lectured throughout the United States and internationally. Dr. Leventhal is the former Editor-in-Chief...

Robert Schwartz co-founded Juvenile Law Center in 1975 and has been its Executive Director since 1982. Schwartz is a national leader in advocating for children’s rights and has extensive experience in all areas of juvenile law, including both delinquency and dependency. Kevin Dougherty is supervising Administrative Judge for both divisions of the Philadelphia Family Court Juvenile Division. Judge Dougherty oversees all dependency and delinquency cases for the Philadelphia court system and...

Corey Shdaimah is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Social Work and the academic coordinator for the MSW/JD Dual Degree Program. She holds law degrees from Tel Aviv University and the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. Her research focuses on how low-income families and professionals who work with them navigate government policies. Shdaimah is the author of Negotiating Justice: Legal Services Lawyers, Low-income Clients, and...

Rep. Schwartz is serving in her third term representing Pennsylvania’s 13th congressional district. She was appointed the powerful Ways and Means Committee as well as the Budget Committee. Rep. Schwartz served as a member of Pennsylvania’s State Senate from 1990 to 2004, spearheading legislation to provide health care for children, leading to the creation of CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the model for the federal SCHIP. In Congress, Rep. Schwartz continues to focus on health...

Based on a successful collaboration between the Yale Center for British Art and Yale Medical School, Amy Herman developed The Art of Perception with the mission of making medical students better observers of their patients by teaching them how to look at art. Underlying her program was the rationale that a vital part of physicians’ diagnostic skill depends on an ability to observe and describe visual information and yet these skills are rarely taught. The Art of Perception has expanded to...

For a variety of reasons, public agencies at all levels of government are increasingly interested in the return on their investment. Nationally, expenditures for child welfare programs exceed $20 billion. The return on investment question simply asks – are children better off as a result of what we spend on their behalf? In his presentation, Dr. Wulczyn will explore accountability within the child welfare system from various perspectives including the practical and the political. Fred...

Marc Cherna has been the Director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services for the past 11 years. He has 35 years of experience including thirteen years as an Assistant Director in the NJ Division of Youth and Family Services. In 2005 Marc received the Betsey M. Rosenbaum award for Excellence in Child Welfare Administration from his peers at the National Association for Public Child Welfare Administrators. He recently served on the Mayor’s Child Welfare Review Panel for the...

Lisa M. Jones, PhD is currently a Research Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire and Faculty at the Crimes Against Children Research Center (CCRC) at UNH. She has conducted research on child maltreatment and the community response to victims for the past ten years and has numerous publications and presentations on topics such as trends in child abuse, child abuse investigations, multidisciplinary teamwork, and Children’s Advocacy Centers.

Lisa M. Jones, PhD is currently a Research Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire and Faculty at the Crimes Against Children Research Center (CCRC) at UNH. She has conducted research on child maltreatment and the community response to victims for the past ten years and has numerous publications and presentations on topics such as trends in child abuse, child abuse investigations, multidisciplinary teamwork, and Children’s Advocacy Centers.

Dr. Prentky has worked as a forensic psychologist for the past twenty years, assessing or supervising the assessment of approximately 2,000 sexual offenders and paraphilics. He is formerly Chief Psychologist and Director of Research at the Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons and Clinical Director of the Joseph J. Peters Institute.

Anne Marie Ambrose: Director, Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services, PA Department of Public Welfare, Office of Children, Youth and Families Gillian Blair, PhD, LLM: Child, Adolescent and Family Therapist, Former Clinical Director, Youth Study Center Angel Flores, Esq.: Chief, Juvenile Unit, Office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia Marsha Levick, Esq.: Legal Director, Juvenile Law Center Sandra Simkins, Esq.: Assistant Chief, Juvenile Unit, Defender Association of Philadelphia