Steering Committee
The Global Social Service Workforce Alliance is overseen and guided by a diverse Steering Committee, which includes senior experts, academics and experienced practitioners from the field of social work and the wider social welfare sector. Steering Committee members participate in strategic planning and decision making and support the Alliance’s mission to promote and strengthen the social service workforce globally.
Steering Committee Members
Michael Byamukama
NASWU President and REPSSI Country Representative, Uganda
Michael is the President of the National Association of Social Workers Uganda and the Uganda representative for REPSSI. He is a social worker by profession with more than 25 years of progressive management/leadership experience in international and regional organizations. Michael has reviewed and contributed to the development of global and national policy documents, frameworks, strategies and standards on social services workforce, social protection, mental health and psychosocial support. He was a part of the core team to develop the Minimum Standards for the Training and Education of Social Workers in Uganda. Currently, under the coordination of the Inter-University Council of East Africa, Michael is one of the experts developing the East Africa benchmarks for obtaining a bachelor’s in social work.
Kirsten Di Martino
Senior Child Protection Advisor, UNICEF Headquarters, USA
Kirsten has over 20 years of experience in human rights, child rights and child protection program leadership and management, including 17 years of experience with UNICEF in Kosovo, Moldova, China, Lao PDR and Germany. Kirsten has extensive experience in child protection systems strengthening, including policy and legislative reform. She has successfully advocated for and supported reforms to better protect children on issues such as the prevention of, and response to, violence against children, child justice, trafficking and migration. Prior to UNICEF, Kirsten worked with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Commission, Defense for Children International and the International Social Service. She holds a Master of Law (LLM) in International Human Rights Law.
Aaron Greenberg
Senior Child Protection Regional Advisor, UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, Switzerland
Aaron is currently the Senior Child Protection Regional Advisor for the UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office. Prior to this, Aaron was chief of child protection in the UNICEF Myanmar office for four years where he oversaw UNICEF’s policy, legislative and programmatic support to the Government of Myanmar. Aaron has also previously served as the chief of protection for UNICEF Georgia where, amongst other issues, he helped steer the child care and social work reforms, assisting the Government to close nearly all the large residential care facilities in the country and expand foster care and prevention services. Aaron has also worked in the Strategic Planning Unit of the United Nations Office of the Secretary General, at Columbia University’s Center for International Organization and Security, and for the government in his hometown of New York City.
Carolyn Housman
CEO, Children and Families Across, United Kingdom
Carolyn is CEO of Children and Families Across Borders, the UK branch of International Social Service, which reunites vulnerable children separated from their families across international borders. She also chairs the UK Cross-border Child Safeguarding Working Group and is a member of the UK Kinship Care Alliance, the BME Migrant Advisory Group and the Global Action on Relocation and Return with Kids. Previously, she was CEO of Heart of the City, the UK’s largest responsible small business network, where she worked alongside the Governor of the Bank of England and the Lord Mayor of London to harness business expertise for community development. She has worked for Amnesty International, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development and the Washington Office on Latin America as well as for the UK and American governments.
Dr. James McCaffery
Former Senior Advisor, Training Resources Group, USA
Dr. James McCaffery has over 30 years of development experience providing technical leadership, capacity building and system strengthening program assistance in a wide variety of settings. For 15 years he helped lead and provide technical guidance and oversight for the three major global projects aimed at improving the health and social service workforce in resource poor settings. Dr. McCaffery has written numerous guideline documents for implementing promising practices in organizational development, capacity building and system strengthening. Dr. McCaffery is a founding partner of the Training Resources Group (TRG) and has played a major role in growing TRG into a well-respected development consulting firm. He previously served as Chair of the Steering Committee for the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance.
Maury Mendenhall
Senior Technical Advisor, Orphans and Vulnerable Children, USAID, USA
Maury has served as a Senior Technical Advisor for USAID’s Office of HIV and AIDS since 2009. She specializes in programming to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS on Orphans and Vulnerable Children. She is responsible for strengthening the technical capacity of host governments, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and faith-based organizations to address the multi-dimensional needs of children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and other adversities. Her areas of expertise include social service system strengthening, case management, child protection and child safeguarding, disability, and mental health and psychosocial support. Prior to joining USAID, Maury worked as a Senior Technical Specialist for the Child and Youth Program at World Learning, an Emergency Child and Youth Protection and Development Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee, a Child Protection Specialist for UNICEF in Southern Sudan and as a Presidential Management Fellow at the US Department of Labor’s International Child Labor Program.
Dr. Ian Milligan
International Advisor, CELCIS, Scotland
Ian is involved in international policy and practice development in the field of alternative care. He is one of the authors of Moving Forward: Implementing the UN Guidelines on the Alternative Care of Children, published in 2013 and now translated into 6 languages. Ian has provided consultancy, research, evaluation and training services in a number of countries. As International lead for CELCIS, Ian is involved in building partnerships with UNICEF, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions to develop policy and increase the knowledge and skills of child welfare professionals across the world. Ian has research interests in many aspects of policy and practice concerning residential and foster care and related areas such as the training of care staff and social workers. With colleagues, he has written and edited textbooks on residential child care for social work students and others involved with ‘looked after’ children.
Dr. Heather Modlin
CEO, Amal Family and Youth Centre, Canada
Heather has worked in the field of child and youth care for over 35 years. She is currently CEO of Amal Youth and Family Centre, a non-profit organization providing a range of services to children, youth and families across Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Heather has served on numerous national and international boards and is currently Chair of the Board of Governors of the International Child and Youth Care Network (CYC-Net), Treasurer of the Board of Directors of FICE-Canada, Steering Committee member of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, and editorial board member of Relational Child and Youth Care Practice. Heather has published numerous journal articles and book chapters and co-edited the book Relational Child and Youth Care in Action. Heather has a PhD in Child and Youth Care from the University of Victoria. In 2017, Heather received the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Community and Social Development in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Foluke Omoworare
Principal Consultant, Fibodaire Development Consultants, Nigeria
Foluke has 24 years of experience as a social worker and has worked with different organizations in Nigeria in the areas of child protection case management, violence against women, orphans and vulnerable children, and HIV/AIDS. Presently, she runs a private consulting organization where she serves as the lead consultant. Foluke has vast experience incorporating capacity building, community engagement, policy adaptation/development and advocacy approaches to aid in the provision of social services, build the capacity of the social service workforce, and strengthen existing systems and structures. She has proven experience working with government and non-governmental agencies to strengthen the social service workforce and ultimately improve service provision to target audiences. Her strength lies in qualitative surveys, project conceptualization, implementation and documentation of lessons learned and best practices.
Rebecca Smith
Head of Child Protection Programmes, Save the Children International, United Kingdom
Rebecca Smith is the Head of Child Protection Programmes for Save the Children International where she works with child protection experts from all over the world to strengthen the laws and policies to support the social welfare workforce, train government social workers, and support community-level child protection mechanisms. She has over 15 years of child protection experience in both humanitarian and development contexts. Prior to joining Save the Children she worked for five years for the International Rescue Committee living and working in Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as being deployed to emergencies all over the world. Before going overseas, Rebecca worked at NYU Medical Centre as a social worker in General Surgery.
Diana Stroud
Former Assistant Dean for Advancement and Alumni Affairs, University of Illinois, USA
Diana served as the Assistant Dean for Advancement and Alumni Affairs, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, for 24 years, first in the School of Social Work and finally in the School of Library and Information Sciences. During her time at the University she was responsible for raising more than $50 million dollars. Funds raised were primarily used for student scholarship and support of their education as well as faculty research and alumni programs. Social Work has been her lifelong profession. Prior to and during her time at the University of Illinois, Diana worked in a variety of community non-profit organizations as a licensed clinical social worker. She worked for more than 27 years in medical and child welfare settings. Diana was a Founding Board Member of Prevent Child Abuse Illinois, the statewide child abuse and neglect organization that continues to thrive today. Always identifying as a social worker, Diana served and continues to participate in the local, state and national boards of the U.S. National Association of Social Workers (NASW).
Dr. Kathryn Conley Wehrmann
Associate Professor of Social Work, Illinois State University, USA
Dr. Kathryn Wehrmann is an emeritus associate professor of social work at Illinois State University where she previously served as the Bachelor’s of Social Work Program Director. Her professional background also includes work in Illinois’ public child welfare system and serving as a consultant on a variety of child welfare projects and programs. She has developed child protection training programs for several cohorts of Romanian officials and has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Bucharest and had subsequent grants to carry out special projects. Her research interests include program evaluation of child welfare and adolescent mental health programs. For the last several years she has taught practice evaluation and field education at the Master’s of Social Work (MSW) level. Kathryn previously served as the U.S. National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Board President (2017-2020). She is the current Chair of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance Steering Committee.
Dr. Nevenka Zegarac
Director, Master's of Social Work Program, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Dr. Nevenka Zegarac is a professor and Director of the Master’s of Social Work Program at the Department of Social Work and Social Policy, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade. She teaches social work with children and youth, case management and qualitative approaches in social work research. She has extensive experience in development and delivery of trainings for frontline practitioners and training of trainers. Nevenka has more than 20 years of experience of consultancy in the West Balkan region with governments and international organizations. She was engaged in the establishment and development of the Chamber of Social Protection Professionals in Serbia and served as the president of the Chamber Expert Council in two consecutive terms. Nevenka has participated in and led a number of national and international policy and research projects and published more than 70 scientific and professional articles, chapters in handbooks, monographs and practical manuals.
