at
Georgetown University where she is a national leader in addressing child welfare system issues in community-based systems of care
and strengthening collaboration between child welfare and mental health systems. Ms. McCarthy started her career as a child welfare
caseworker in West Virginia, has held positions in public and private child welfare agencies and a state mental health system,
and authored several publications on the health and mental health needs of children and families in the child welfare system.
Jess McDonald (Public Administrator position)
Mr. McDonald is the former director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services as well as the former director of
Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities for the state of Illinois. Currently, he is a clinical professor at the School of Social Work
at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign and the director of the University/Agency/Community Consortium project at the
Child and Family Research Center at the same university.
Mr. McDonald is also the 2004 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Child Welfare from the National Association of Public
Child Welfare Administrators and a consultant with
Child Welfare
Associates.
Jeanine Long (Open Position)
Ms. Long is a former state Senator (44th District – Mill Creek) and community leader on health and human services issues.
Ms. Long was the former Chair and Ranking Republican of the Senate Human Services and Corrections committee and a member of the
Legislative Children’s Oversight Committee, Families For Kids Oversight Committee. She was the recipient of the Governor’s 1998
Child Abuse Prevention Award and the prime sponsor of numerous bills requiring studies of and improvements to the state’s child welfare system.
Dorothy Roberts (Open Position)
Professor Roberts is the author of numerous books and articles on child welfare and its intersection with issues of race and poverty
(including Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare). Roberts is currently the Kirkland and Ellis Professor,
Northwestern University School of Law, as well as a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research.
