Carlyn Clark , MSSW is a Supervisor with Calument County. Previously she worked as a Child Protective Services Social Worker in Sheboygan County for 7 ½ years and was a full time trainer for the NEW Partnership. In addition to her child welfare experience, Carlyn is a Certified Divorce Mediator, Licensed School Social Worker and has background working with individuals and families affected by substance abuse and mental health issues. Carlyn received her BSW from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN and her MSSW from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Candy Conard, ACSW, CICSW, Candy was a faculty member of the U.W.-Green Bay Professional Social Work Program, an Executive Director of a Domestic Violence Agency, and has held  manager/supervisory positions in various non-profit organizations.  She has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from U.W. Madison, and a LCSW.  She has had experience with children, adolescents, families, mental health and organizational development. She is a trainer and curriculum developer for the NEW Partnership.

Kate Gravel is a Senior Social Worker for Dane County Department of Human Services. She has worked in the field for over 17 years doing ongoing child protection. For the past 15 years she has co-facilitated a batterer’s treatment program at the Midwest Domestic Violence Resource Center in Madison. She has trained throughout the state on issues related to the co-occurrence of domestic violence and child maltreatment. Kate is a long-time member of the Domestic Violence Coordinated Community Response Task Force and also participates in the Youth Issues subcommittee of the Task Force. She was involved in the state-wide work group that created the Domestic Violence Handbook for Wisconsin Child Protective Services Workers in 2010 and continues to work on a companion manual for domestic violence advocates to learn more about the world of CPS.

Heather Halonie has been working in the field of child welfare for over twelve years, and has experience working in both tribal and county agencies. She is currently working as the Training Manager for the Intertribal Child Welfare Training Partnership. In that position she coordinates trainings for both tribal and country child welfare staff in Wisconsin. Heather developed the foundation training “Case Practice with American Indian Tribes,” and has experience training that curriculum to country child welfare staff. Heather has a Masters of Social Work from the University of Minnesota—Duluth.

Jennifer Heil MSW, is a full-time trainer for NEW Partnership for Children and Families. She has been practicing in the field of child welfare since receiving her BSW with a Child Welfare Emphasis in 1994, primarily focusing on ongoing services to families and working with foster parents. Prior to coming to NEW Partnership, Jennifer served as a Foster Care Coordinator for Outagamie and Calumet Counties for 11 years, and worked with the Receiving Home, Respite Care, and Kinship Care Programs. She has enjoyed training parents, staff, and foster parents over the past 13 years. Jennifer obtained her MSW degree from UW-Green Bay in 2009.

Elizabeth Hudson, LCSW, is employed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health and partners with the Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services to integrate trauma-informed care into a wide range of human service settings. In 2009, Elizabeth accepted the Wisconsin’s Association of Family and Children’s Agency’s (WAFCA) John R. Grace Outstanding Leadership Award for the Department of Health Services’ work in promoting trauma-informed care and the reduction of seclusion and restraint. In 2011, Elizabeth received the “Kindling the Spirit of Recovery” award from United We Stand, the statewide mental health consumer advocacy group. Elizabeth has worked in the field of trauma prevention and treatment for 20 years as an advocate, clinician, supervisor, and administrator. As a founding member of the national organization, Coalition Addressing Trauma, she regularly participates in national discussions regarding the integration of trauma-informed care across multiple human service systems.

Julie Jensen is currently employed at Marathon County Department of Social Services where she has been a supervisor for the past 13 years. Julie supervises the Ongoing Child Protection Services Unit, Children’s Long Term Support Unit, and Specialized Foster Care Services. Julie has a Masters Degree in Social Work from UW-Milwaukee. Prior to her current position, Julie’s specialty was in the area of mental health where she provided such services as intensive in-home family therapy in rural Wisconsin counties, mobile crisis intervention services to severally emotionally disturbed youth in Dane County, counseling services to victims of crime, and outpatient mental health services to children and their families.

Kristin Lampe , MSSW, APSW is currently the training specialist for the NEW Partnership. For six years, she worked for Dane County Department of Human Services as the Recruitment and Training Coordinator for the Foster Care Unit. Her responsibilities included training and recruiting prospective foster parents, along with developing on-going training for existing foster parents. Kristin also handled referrals of children needing foster care placements and provided consultation to on-going foster parents. In 2004, she moved to North Dakota and was a Pregnancy and Adoption social worker for Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota. In this position, she worked with birthparents on developing parenting and adoption plans and assisted families in adopting children both domestically and internationally.

Suzanne Mathison has a BSW from Western Michigan University and has worked for the past ten years in Child Protective Services at Marathon County Department of Social Services. Prior to that she spent 17 years in residential treatment, working with male and female victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse. Suzanne attended Advanced Step Wise training and uses this model consistently in her practice.

Michael McGowan is President of McGowan and Associates, a training and consultation firm specializing in alcohol, drug, conflict resolution, and workplace and family issues. He works with companies, schools, parent groups, and students as a trainer, consultant and motivational speaker. His seminars are uniquely educational and entertaining.

Mr. McGowan has spent the last twenty three years working with families and children. He worked as an educator, a youth care worker, a family counselor, an alcohol and drug counselor and trainer. He has directed state certified training programs and alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs. During the last fifteen years he has given assemblies to tens of thousands of school children each year and has trained thousands of teachers in hundreds of school districts across the country. Additionally, he has worked with social service agencies, the department of corrections, professional athletes and teams from the NFL and MLB, and dozens of private companies as a trainer and consultant. His experience also includes numerous published articles and guest appearances on radio and television. Mr. McGowan is a renowned speaker whose presentations are personal and inspirational.

Nancy B. Miller is an attorney who focuses her practice on child protection. She consults with and represents a number of Wisconsin counties across the state in termination of parental rights (TPR) cases, and has acted as a hearing examiner regarding the substantiation of child abuse or neglect. Nancy was an Assistant Corporation Counsel in Green Bay for four years dealing with child support, paternity, TPR and mental health cases prior to entering private practice. She did guardian ad litem and family court work until 2000. Nancy practices law with her husband, Steve Miller, an appellate attorney. As a team, Miller and Miller has been extremely successful in prosecuting TPR cases and convincing appellate courts to affirm those orders terminating parental rights on appeal. Nancy enjoys working with child protection social workers toward the goals of permanence and safety for the children in the system. She has been a trainer of legal issues and practice for child protection social workers since 1997.

His applied ethics and boundaries experiences include: about a decade and a half of teaching developing practitioners in higher education at the MSW and BSW levels; developing numerous ethical training curriculums, facilitating hundreds of organizational and agency-based trainings to a variety of professionals in the helping professions; serving on professional and organizational ethics committees; and he coordinated the development of an ethics committee for a county department of social services.

Kevin is the author of numerous publications including chapters in two books, Social Work Values, Ethics, and Boundaries: A Teaching Module and, Spirituality and Chemical Dependency. In part, other works have appeared in the Journal of Public Child Welfare, Journal of Chemical Dependency Treatment; and the Journal of HIV/AIDS and Social Services.

Connie Usiak B.A., M.S., Certified Social Worker, Certified Professional Counselor, has over 25 years of experience as a Social Worker, primarily in child welfare services. She has been a supervisor in Dunn, St. Croix and Polk Counties covering all areas of child welfare services including Child Protective Services, Juvenile Delinquency and Foster Care Services. She has developed programs in Parent Aide Services, In-home Family-Based Substance Abuse Services and Independent Living Skills. She has developed and supervised volunteer programs both in county human services settings and hospice programs. Since 2000 she has provided training and curriculum development through the various training partnerships in Wisconsin. She also currently works as a social worker in Inter-Country Adoption.