National Partnership for Child Safety Honors Founding Leaders and Champion Award Recipient at 2026 National Convening

Leaders recognized for helping build a member-led collaborative committed to learning, supporting families and building stronger systems to keep children safe

DENVER, CO, UNITED STATES, September 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS) honored seven child welfare leaders at its 2026 National Convening in Denver, recognizing their leadership in establishing and advancing a national effort to improve child safety and prevent child maltreatment-related fatalities.

The Founding Leader Awards recognize leaders whose early commitment, vision and continued engagement helped build NPCS into a national, member-led collaborative of more than 40 state, city, county and tribal child-serving agencies.

The Founding Leader honorees are:

- Brenda Gooley, Director of Operations, Vermont Department for Children and Families
- Jodi Hill-Lilly, former Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Children and Families
- Diane Iglesias, Senior Deputy Director, Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services
- Marie Noonan, Director, New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families
- Joseph Ribsam, Acting Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Children and Families
- Chip Spinning, Executive Director, Franklin County Children Services

NPCS also presented Dr. Zeinab Chahine, executive vice president of Child and Family Services at Casey Family Programs, with its Champion Award. With the incredible support of Casey Family Programs, Dr. Chahine’s innovative thinking and leadership was instrumental in the creation of NPCS in 2018 and its focus on applying safety science to child welfare. Casey continues to support NPCS and the spread of this approach to child welfare.

“These leaders were willing to come together around a simple but powerful idea: when the safety of children is at stake, we have an obligation to learn from one another and continually improve,” said Korin Schmidt, director of the Wyoming Department of Family Services and co-chair of the NPCS Executive Committee. “Their leadership helped create a partnership where jurisdictions can be candid about their challenges, share what they are learning and use those lessons to build stronger systems for children and families. We are proud to recognize the role they have played in making NPCS what it is today.”

The awards were presented during the 2026 NPCS National Convening, held September 1-3 in Denver with the support of Casey Family Programs as hosts. Approximately 150 child welfare leaders and professionals attended, representing 44 child welfare agencies.

Over two days, participants shared successes, challenges and lessons from their work to strengthen child safety. Sessions examined child fatality and near fatality reviews using the Safe Systems Improvement Tool as well as workforce culture from TeamFirst Assessment of Safety Culture (TASC) data, featured expert panels and jurisdiction-led poster presentations, and created opportunities for deeper discussion about strengthening families, supporting the child welfare workforce and advancing innovations in child protection.

The gathering also demonstrated the continued growth of a partnership that began in 2018 as a quality improvement collaborative and has since expanded to jurisdictions across the country.

“What began with a group of leaders asking how we could learn differently from the hardest moments has grown into a national community committed to doing that work together,” said Chip Spinning, executive director of Franklin County Children Services and co-chair of the NPCS Executive Committee. “More jurisdictions are sharing data, learning from one another and applying safety science to strengthen their systems. This momentum matters because no agency has to solve these challenges alone, and what one jurisdiction learns can help make children safer far beyond its borders.”

NPCS is the only national collaborative focused on applying safety science to reduce child maltreatment fatalities. As a learning partnership, NPCS helps jurisdictions examine how systems operate, identify patterns and root causes, and translate what they learn into sustained improvements.

Through nationally aligned critical incident reviews, shared data and standardized definitions, safety culture tools, workforce support, technical assistance and peer-to-peer learning, NPCS helps participating jurisdictions strengthen their ability to recognize risk, respond earlier and prevent harm whenever possible.
At the center of the partnership is a shared commitment: child safety requires both support and action, child safety is a shared responsibility, and systems learn to do better when they learn together.

“The leaders we are recognizing helped establish more than an organization. They helped create a new way for child welfare systems to learn from one another,” said Mike Cull, CEO at the Center for the Helping Professions, which has provided technical support to NPCS since its founding. “The growth of NPCS shows what’s possible when jurisdictions are willing to share what they know, ask hard questions and turn what they learn into action. The best way to honor that founding vision is to keep building on it so that our systems continue getting better at preventing harm and keeping children safe.”


About the National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS)

The National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS) is a national quality improvement collaborative of state, county, tribal and non-governmental child welfare agencies dedicated to preventing child maltreatment fatalities and serious harms. NPCS applies safety science to build a culture of learning and continuous improvement across jurisdictions, advancing data-driven collaboration, peer learning, and workforce strengthening to improve outcomes for children and families. The Partnership is staffed by the Center for the Helping Professions, which provides administrative and technical support to its member jurisdictions.
Learn more at https://nationalpartnershipchildsafety.org.

Manny Rivera
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