Skill-Building - Program management and development
Skill-Building - Organizational development
Skill-Building - Evaluation
Justice Systems - Social justice
Health - HIV/AIDS
Education - School/community partnerships
Community Development - Leadership development
Community Development - Community organizing
Community Development - Collaboration

Sandra J. Wilkie is one of ten national Fellows selected for the 2001 Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Children and Family Fellowship Program. The eleven-month fellowship is designed for accomplished, mid-career professionals from across the country to accelerate their professional and personal development in order to make a greater difference in improving results for children and families living in disadvantaged communities. The program includes three residencies at the Foundation headquarters, two field placements, five week-long seminars, and other learning activities.

During the fellowship year, Ms. Wilkie is focusing her attention on the transformation of public agencies. She believes that accountability for results, accessibility of services, citizen involvement, and flexible financing are key principles to shape the delivery of human services. Public agencies driven by these principles increase their ability to meet their obligation to help families thrive and children reach their potential. Sandra is particularly interested in strategies that enable agencies to partner with diverse community groups. She is especially eager to understand the possibilities of a governor’s office as a lever for state agency change and to learn the political strategy involved in moving an agenda, developing and implementing a framework for negotiations, and the political dynamics of change.

Prior to the fellowship, Ms. Wilkie was a senior policy associate at the Family Investment Trust (FIT). Missouri’s governor established FIT, a public/private entity, to lead what became a nationally recognized statewide human services systems reform. This organization set the direction for state policy and programming involving children, families and communities. In this capacity, Ms. Wilkie assisted state departments and community partnership to change the governance, financing, and delivery of social, economic, and educational services. Her position involved working closely with department directors, deputy directors, civic and business leaders, and service providers. Sandra facilitated negotiations among stakeholders, provided guidance on evaluation, designed training opportunities, provided technical assistance in developing local governance structures for managing resources and developed resource materials on results accountability, service integration, flexible financing and local governance.

Over her six-year tenure, the initiative grew from four to eight state agencies, developed twenty-one community partnerships, and encompassed over one hundred fifty school-linked and neighborhood-based service delivery sites. Most importantly, measurable outcomes in children and family health, education and child welfare improved. Concurrently, Ms. Wilkie served as adjunct faculty at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work developing and teaching courses on children and family policy. Prior to joining the FIT, Ms. Wilkie spent three years at the Administration for Children and Families in the United States Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. While there, she developed child welfare policy, coordinated program reviews of state child welfare agencies, and provided technical assistance to federal regional offices and states. Sandra is a graduate of the Presidential Management Intern Program, a two-year federal leadership program for postgraduates from across the country pursuing management careers in government. Between her baccalaureate and graduate education, Ms. Wilkie developed and ran a program for teenage mothers and was a manager of community mental health services. Ms. Wilkie has an M.S.W. from Washington University in St. Louis and a B.S.W from Rhode Island College.