Profiles Showcase Latest Class of Children and Family Fellows

The lat­est mem­bers of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Fel­low­ship^® are work­ing to improve poli­cies and pro­grams that affect chil­dren and youth in mar­gin­al­ized communities.

Meet the mem­bers of the 2025—27 Chil­dren and Fam­i­ly Fellowship

Six­teen lead­ers — 10 women and six men from nine states and the Wash­ing­ton, D.C. — were select­ed for the inten­sive, 23-month exec­u­tive lead­er­ship pro­gram. A wide range of expe­ri­ences informs and strength­ens their work, with many cred­it­ing the schol­ar­ships, men­tors and oppor­tu­ni­ties that helped them suc­ceed as young peo­ple. Now, they are com­mit­ted to ensur­ing that today’s chil­dren and youth have access to those same sup­ports — not by chance, but by design.

Improv­ing Pub­lic Sys­tems for Youth and Families

Abe Fer­nan­dez, Jacob Leos-Urbel and Chris­t­ian Mot­ley cred­it schol­ar­ships to inde­pen­dent schools and high­er edu­ca­tion with set­ting them on the path to mean­ing­ful careers, while Sharon Vig­il and Michael Lynch express grat­i­tude for the men­tors and car­ing adults whole helped them nav­i­gate chal­leng­ing cir­cum­stances. Across the cohort, these lead­ers have ded­i­cat­ed their careers to ensur­ing that such expe­ri­ences are not a mat­ter of luck, but the norm.

I hear con­sis­tent­ly from the young men in our pro­gram that hav­ing a net­work of oth­er peo­ple who care deeply about them, beyond their fam­i­ly, helps them feel seen. — Michael Lynch

From Lived Expe­ri­ence to Pol­i­cy Leadership

Some Fel­lows are immi­grants or chil­dren of immi­grants, shaped and inspired by the for­ti­tude and ambi­tion of their fam­i­lies. Adri­ana Cade­na, for exam­ple, came to this coun­try as an undoc­u­ment­ed 6‑year-old whose fam­i­ly did not qual­i­fy for any pub­lic assistance.

“Even when we became legal res­i­dents, we didn’t know these ser­vices were avail­able to us,” she said.

Today, Cade­na advo­cates for immi­grant fam­i­lies to ful­ly access the ben­e­fits of the nation’s safe­ty net.

In addi­tion to Cade­na, Fel­lows Adri­enne Ole­jnik and Shamoyia Gar­diner lead leg­isla­tive advo­ca­cy efforts on behalf of mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties. Ole­jnik is vice pres­i­dent of the largest statewide advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tion in Kansas, and Gar­diner recent­ly became leg­isla­tive direc­tor for the Office of the Bal­ti­more City Coun­cil Pres­i­dent.

There are lots of dif­fer­ent ways to make a dif­fer­ence. Some­times it’s vis­i­ble. Some­times it’s behind the scenes. Our voic­es are so need­ed for chil­dren and fam­i­lies because they don’t have the time or skillset to be full-time advo­cates. — Adri­enne Olejnik

Fel­lows KellyAnn Kirk­patrick and Christi­na Autin expand access to afford­able hous­ing through their roles in the pri­vate sec­tor, build­ing part­ner­ships that add, rather than extract, resources. In her role at Amazon’s Hous­ing Equi­ty Fund, Kirk­patrick focus­es on fam­i­lies earn­ing between 30% and 80% of the area medi­an income.

“There’s a hous­ing gap that often includes peo­ple like teach­ers, nurs­es and fire­fight­ers,” she said. ​“We need more hous­ing they can afford.” 

Build­ing Sys­tems That Keep Fam­i­lies Together

Dr. Alger Studstill Jr. and Jovon Per­ry over­see child and fam­i­ly wel­fare pro­grams in state gov­ern­ments, draw­ing on pri­vate-sec­tor prac­tices to make pub­lic ben­e­fits sys­tems more user-friend­ly and efficient.

“How might we recon­fig­ure our pro­grams to meet the needs of fam­i­lies, ver­sus ask­ing fam­i­lies to con­form to our com­plex sys­tems?” said Per­ry. Ann Reil­ly also over­sees a child wel­fare sys­tem and, like her Fel­low peers, is com­mit­ted to keep­ing fam­i­lies together.

We believe that com­mu­ni­ties and fam­i­lies should be sup­port­ed, not sep­a­rat­ed. — Ann Reilly

Oth­ers take a mul­ti-sec­tor approach, pri­or­i­tiz­ing com­mu­ni­ty voic­es and cross-sec­tor col­lab­o­ra­tion. Robert Mar­cus brings togeth­er stake­hold­ers to align resources to close the sports equi­ty gap. Mayra Aguirre over­sees place-based ini­tia­tives that cen­ter the voic­es of teach­ers and fam­i­lies, while Dei­dre Grif­fith guides com­mu­ni­ty health needs assess­ments and improve­ment plans across a 14-hos­pi­tal system.

“When you give the com­mu­ni­ty a voice and resources, you lean into their innate gifts, tal­ents and strengths,” said Grif­fith. ​“You don’t try to do this work with­out their expertise.”

Regard­less of field or sec­tor, Fel­lows are com­mit­ted to ensur­ing that the oppor­tu­ni­ties they’ve enjoyed extend to others.

“I wasn’t the per­son you would tap to solve your hous­ing cri­sis 10 years ago,” said Kirk­patrick. ​“Now I believe I deserve to be in this room. How do I make sure that door stays open for others?”