Board of Directors

Our staff and board is diverse and in addition to educational and professional expertise, we have lived experience with Head Start; child welfare systems; high-stress, low-income communities; mental and physical health issues; substance abuse; children with disabilities; and discrimination. We know firsthand what it takes to advocate and navigate for our family’s needs.

In 2012, in the wake of extreme statewide budget cuts, the staff team of a primary child abuse prevention effort — Strengthening Families Illinois — decided to become the first board of directors of a new national organization: Be Strong Families. Doing so was a leap of faith. With no capital to start a new business, no foundation support, and no promise of a contract with the agency that had funded us for the past 7 years, the hope and intention of the founders was that the parent engagement and leadership innovations and child welfare system transformations we had become known for would be sustainable nationally. We’re still here and going strong.