We’re thrilled to announce that Katie Stoehr has joined AAFSC’s board. Her child welfare expertise and experience is vast, and she will be able to help us shape the conversation about how the city approaches prevention work. She joined her first board meeting earlier this month.
Here’s more information about Katie:
Katie has worked in child welfare for almost 25 years. She started her career in New York City with the Association to Benefit Children, which works in a place-based modality in East Harlem.
Impressed by hearing former Commissioner Mattingly speak about child welfare reform, she joined the Administration for Children’s Services when he led the department during the Bloomberg administration.
After leaving ACS in 2010, Katie joined Graham Windham to run their foster care program in three boroughs before she was promoted to senior vice president there. After having her first baby, she relocated to Pittsburgh to be closer to her family. During that time, she worked for the Allegheny County human services department and later started doing national consulting work in New York City, Pittsburgh, and Missouri.
Eight years ago, Katie was recruited to join the Murphy administration in New Jersey, first as deputy commissioner in the Department of Children and Families here. She then became the first deputy commissioner. The department in New Jersey houses child welfare, children’s behavioral health, domestic violence and sexual assault services.
There, she and her team expanded the Department’s supportive housing program (Keeping Families Together) to become the largest in the United States. With 650 units, it supports households with child protection involvement so that they can avoid foster care placement. They grew the country’s second statewide universal nurse newborn home visiting program, where everyone that gives birth in New Jersey can access a registered nurse coming to their home to spend some time with themselves and their newborn. They also converted about $160 million worth of services to evidence-based models.
Katie now works at a national philanthropy foundation that works on child welfare reform. The organization’s overarching goal is to safely reduce the use of foster care as a safety intervention.
Katie earned a Master of Public Administration from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, and a BA in Politics and Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh. She has served on the executive committee of the National Association for Public Child Welfare, the NJ Maternal and Infant Health Authority, and the National Partnership for Child Safety. She is a proud Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, wife and mother of two.
