Jim Casey Fellows Names Newest Cohort of Young Leaders

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion recent­ly named nine new Jim Casey Fel­lows, emerg­ing lead­ers who have fos­ter care expe­ri­ence and the desire to improve out­comes for their peers in child wel­fare sys­tems. Youth home­less­ness, racial equi­ty, men­tal health, col­lege tuition waivers and teen preg­nan­cy are among the inter­ests iden­ti­fied as impor­tant to the mem­bers of the 2021 cohort.

The Jim Casey Fel­lows — who are age 18 or old­er — receive train­ing in lead­er­ship and advo­ca­cy skills through the Casey Foun­da­tion. The Fel­lows’ rec­om­men­da­tions help inform Casey’s strate­gies for old­er youth in fos­ter care who are tran­si­tion­ing to adulthood.

The newest Jim Casey Fel­lows and their home states include:

• Ned­hal Al-Kaza­hy (Nebras­ka)
• Aponi Boy­er (Hawaii)
• Alyssa Davis (New Mexico)
• Natas­sia Gor­don (Rhode Island)
• Diane Guz­man (Cal­i­for­nia)
• Aly Leonard (Indi­ana)
• Leslie McClain (Geor­gia)
• Teshi­ana Smith-Nichols (Penn­syl­va­nia)
• Jamiesun Vaughn (Mis­sis­sip­pi)

“Our voice mat­ters,” says Natas­sia Gor­don from Rhode Island. ​“I know that change doesn’t hap­pen overnight, but I know that with the help of every­one around me, some change can be done for the future gen­er­a­tion.” Gor­don aspires to a career in social work. The Rhode Island-based non­prof­it Fos­ter For­ward, a Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive^® part­ner site, nom­i­nat­ed Gor­don to par­tic­i­pate in the program.

The newest Jim Casey Fel­lows join a net­work of peers who are using their real-life exper­tise and apply­ing their advanc­ing skills to nation­al work at the Foun­da­tion — mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in the field in part­ner­ship with their Jim Casey Ini­tia­tive local sites.

“Through its youth-adult part­ner­ship mod­el, the Jim Casey Fel­lows pro­gram demon­strates the val­ue and long-term ben­e­fit of authen­ti­cal­ly engag­ing the peo­ple who are clos­est to crit­i­cal issues, as they know what they need and hold answers and cre­ative solu­tions,” says Leslie Gross, direc­tor of the Foundation’s Fam­i­ly Well-Being Strat­e­gy Group.