Child Welfare Change Maker Award

The Child Welfare Change Maker Award was developed in 2018 in order to recognize the significant work and dedication of child welfare stakeholders whose impact positively affects change in child welfare practice, policy and research across Minnesota. The 2018 inaugural year Child Welfare Change Maker Award was awarded to the Minnesota Office of the Ombudsperson for Families to recognize and honor their critical work with children and families.

2024 Child Welfare Change Maker Award Recipient

Kelis Houston

Kelis Houston is founder of Village Arms, an organization created in direct response to the over representation and inequitable treatment of African Americans across the child welfare service continuum. Kelis began her career in social services over a decade ago, and she has long served as an advocate and voice for marginalized communities. Her early work in child welfare advocacy was spent at St. Joseph’s Home for Children in Minneapolis. At that time, St. Joseph’s was the central intake shelter for Hennepin County and often the first stop for children once removed from their families. From there, she became a volunteer guardian ad litem (GAL) before taking a full-time position as a cultural specialist GAL. During that time, she also joined the NAACP and created the first child protection committee with the goal of meeting with decision makers across the state with demands and recommendations to reduce disparities. Kelis’ personal mission is to address and help eradicate child welfare disparities through legislative action, youth and family advocacy, policy reform, and community engagement. Kelis wrote and is advocating for the African American Family Preservation Act, which promotes the stability and security of African American families by the establishment of standards to prevent the arbitrary removal of African American children from their families. Kelis currently serves as cultural consultant to child welfare staff, students, and service providers. Her training is designed to bring a new level of cultural awareness to those working for and within the African American community in an effort to achieve clearer lines of communication and a sensitivity to culture.

Past Child Welfare Change Maker Award Recipients

Hoang Murphy2023 Recipient

A former high school English teacher, he has seen the importance of amplifying student and family voices. As a Foster, he knows that children and families must, and absolutely can, have a seat at the policy making table. At Foster Advocates he works to ensure that those most impacted by current inequities have a voice in making decisions and crafting solutions. Hoang has the honor of being a 2022 Bush Fellow, was the 2021 CCAI Angel in Adoption Award recipient and served as the 2016 Public Policy Fellow with the United States Department of Education. He is a proud first-generation college graduate with a B.A. from Syracuse University, where he majored in Policy Studies, and an M.S., Ed. from Johns Hopkins University. In his spare time, he likes to brag about the Eastside of St. Paul, cook, and try to be the person his dog thinks he is.

Michelle Chalmers2022 Recipient

Michelle Chalmers, MSW, LISW is the Permanency Innovation and Consultation Director at Ampersand Families. In 2008, she co-founded that organization and was its executive director until January 2022. At that time Michelle shifted into a new role where she is able to leverage her 33 years of experience in child welfare to advance initiatives and practices in the community that aim to make services to youth and families more equitable, family-affirming and trauma-competent.
In 2002, Michelle led efforts to launch The Homecoming Project (THP), a pilot project that, over its 5-year run, achieved permanency for 57 out of 100 youth, from 40 Minnesota counties, all of whom were age 14 or older and who had been under guardianship of the commissioner for more than a year (average 4 years). Michelle’s work since THP has been almost entirely about advancing the right of youth to have access to biological family and other important people from their life – that the interventions we do in the child welfare system must always center their birthright to family/kin, community, and culture. Michelle has long been a truth-teller in naming the ways we fall short and creating meaningful practices and opportunities for us as a system to do better.
As someone who aged out of the foster care system, Michelle has had a lifelong passion for serving system-impacted youth and their families. She has worked tirelessly to lift up youth’s voices about their experiences in the system and puts familial, kinship connection at the center of her work with young people. She is currently supporting several initiatives locally and nationally that amplify the right of young people to be connected to their families, significant adults, community and culture.
In her personal life, Michelle has been a host and foster parent to six young people (now aged 27 to 41) – relationships she treasures and that (mostly) continue to this day. The strengths and vulnerabilities she brings to her work and personal life are also a testament to the lifelong impact and complexities of child welfare intervention.

Tim Zuel2020 Recipient

Dr. Tim Zuel, former Manager for Hennepin County’s Be@School Program, served children and families for over 30 years in public child welfare and children’s mental health. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota, Tim worked in a walk-in mental health clinic in London, UK for a year. Returning to the United States, Tim attended the University of Wisconsin for his Master’s in Social Work. Tim began working for Hennepin County in 1988 in Public Health. Tim transferred to child protection where he worked for 18 years before moving into children’s mental health. After several years he moved to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to manage be@school, the County’s school engagement program. Tim has been an adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work for 21 years. Tim received a PhD in Social Work in 2010 and has pursued research in child maltreatment and connections to future delinquency, early school absenteeism, minority communities school engagement, and policy issues on child welfare interventions.

Nicole Names2019 Recipient

Nicole spent her career serving others and supporting the professionals who worked alongside her. Most recently, Nicole was the Director of Pope County Human Services and she dedicated herself to improving the system designed to serve and protect Minnesota’s children and their families. She played an instrumental role in recent statewide child welfare reform efforts, serving on planning and implementation committees as well as testifying on behalf of counties in numerous legislative hearings. Nicole also committed herself, taking time away from her family and her job at the county, to join a University of Minnesota research team in the study of child welfare training systems. As part of this team, Nicole traveled across the country to study and analyze the current standards of practice for training a competent and effective child welfare workforce. Nicole was a passionate advocate for children and families across the state as well as for the professionals who work tirelessly to serve them. This award was given posthumously and accepted on Nicole’s behalf by her husband Mitch Names and their daughters Gretta and Grace.

Jill Kehaulani Esch2018 Recipient

Jill Kehaulani (Kay-HOW-La-Knee) Esch is Native Hawaiian and was born and raised in Hawaii. She is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Mitchell Hamline School of Law. In 2013, Jill became the Ombudsperson for American Indian Families. As
the Ombudsperson for American Indian Families, she investigates complaints for non-compliance of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act (MIFPA), Minnesota Statutes, Rules and DHS Policies that involve child
protection cases. She also collaborates with tribes, agencies, counties, community organizations, courts, schools and other organizations to develop policies, rules and laws to improve outcomes for American Indian Families involved in the child protection system, as well as collaborating on prevention programs. Previous to her current job, she worked in a small Hawaii law firm for 24 years; she was a judicial law clerk to Judge John Q. McShane and an associate attorney in Duluth. Jill is an active member of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). In 2017, she received NICWA’s Member of the Year Award. Jill was elected co-chair of the Children and Families Chapter for the United States Ombudsman Association (USOA) in 2017.

Muriel Gubasta2018 Recipient

Muriel Gubasta is the Ombudsperson for Spanish-Speaking and Hispanic-Latino Families, and she has served in this role since 2005. As an Ombudsperson, she serves as an independent and neutral who hears complaints by individuals against county agencies that are responsible for open child protection cases. Muriel monitors agency compliance with all laws governing child protection and placement as they impact on Spanish-Speaking and Hispanic-Latino Families. She investigates decisions, acts, and other matters of an agency, program, or facility providing protection, or placement services to Spanish-Speaking and Hispanic-Latino children. She also educates the public, legislators, and policy makers about the rights and needs of Spanish-Speaking and Hispanic/Latino children and families in Minnesota’s Child Protection System and provides an on-going, independent assessment of system deficiencies. Muriel received her Juris Doctorate degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law in 2002.

Ann Hill2018 Recipient

Ann Hill has been with the Office of Ombudsperson for Families for 25 years. In addition to her duties as an ombudsman, she has worked on many national and statewide committees in an effort to bring voice and recognition to the importance of eliminating racial disparities in child welfare systems. Many times she has been the only voice, but was persistent in her message that this is the work of government. Ann says that the ever present and growing numbers of Black and Brown children in these systems is just not acceptable, it is not good government, and it is certainly not in the best interest of the child.
Ann adds that if she could list all the committees and positions she has held or been a part of, that list would be too long, but what she would like folks to know is that racial inequities and biases exist in these system, and we cannot continue to ignore this reality and if we are to sustain the human race seven generations, we must redirect our attention and resources to improving outcomes for all children now. Every child matters and every child counts. They are our only hope for the future.

Bauz Lyfoung Nengchu 2018 Recipient

Bauz Lyfoung Nengchu has a Master of Public Affairs in social policy from Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Arts degree in family counseling from the Metropolitan State University. She is the first Hmong ombudsperson in the nation and has held this position for over twenty years. She cares deeply about the lack of interpreters to bridge the language barriers, lack of culturally appropriate services, and lack of accountability from government agencies to meet the needs of refugees’ families and children who are involved in the child protection system. In her role as ombudsperson, she educates the families on the child protection laws and processes, and investigates complaints from families who believe they have been unfairly treated by the child protection social service agencies. To help shape the future public policy as it affects Asian-Pacific families, Ms. Nengchu served on task forces, committees, forums, conferences, and planning groups. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and gardening.

Louise Panton2018 Recipient

Louise Panton is the Office Administrative Specialist with the Office of Ombudspersons for Families. She was born in Monrovia, Liberia. When Louise was five years old, her family relocated to Ghana — where they would be safe from the dangers of the Civil War in Liberia. When she was 13 years old, she moved to the United States with her family to pursue an education and a better life. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational and Human Resource Management from Wilmington University in Delaware. Louise’s life experiences have provided her with the skills and compassion necessary to assist families from all backgrounds. Louise is patient and has the compassion and empathy necessary to collect the information needed to refer families with open child protection cases to one of the four ombudspersons. Louise is the mother of two young daughters, she recently returned from a vacation to Liberia – her first time visiting her native land since she left 28 years ago.