Jill Duerr Berrick
Jill Duerr Berrick is a Distinguished Professor and the Zellerbach Family Foundation Professor of Social Welfare. She also holds a joint appointment as a Professor II at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Dr. Berrick's research focuses on the child welfare system and efforts to improve the experiences of children and families touched by foster care. Her interests target the intersection of poverty, childhood development, parenting, and the service systems designed to address family well-being. Berrick’s research approach typically relies upon the voices of service system consumers or providers to identify the impacts of social problems and social service solutions on family life.
For over three decades Dr. Berrick has conducted a range of studies examining child welfare services for vulnerable families. She has written or co-written 11 books and numerous articles on topics relating to family poverty, child maltreatment and child welfare. Her most influential works have examined the benefits and limitations of kinship foster care; the characteristics of highly effective foster caregivers; and the human impacts of poverty-related policies for children and families at risk of foster care involvement.
Dr. Berrick's research focuses on the child welfare system and efforts to improve the experiences of children and families touched by foster care. Her interests target the intersection of poverty, childhood development, parenting, and the service systems designed to address family well-being. Berrick’s research approach typically relies upon the voices of service system consumers or providers to identify the impacts of social problems and social service solutions on family life.
For over three decades Dr. Berrick has conducted a range of studies examining child welfare services for vulnerable families. She has written or co-written 11 books and numerous articles on topics relating to family poverty, child maltreatment and child welfare. Her most influential works have examined the benefits and limitations of kinship foster care; the characteristics of highly effective foster caregivers; and the human impacts of poverty-related policies for children and families at risk of foster care involvement.
Vasiliki "Kiki" Marca
Vasiliki Marca is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is pursuing a double major in Political Economics and French. She is highly involved in campus life as a member of the ASUC’s Chief Technology Office and a member of the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to sustaining our oceans. She became interested in child welfare when her family adopted two girls out of the foster care system, exposing her to a broken system.
Max Abubucker
Max Abubucker is a first-year undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is studying philosophy and economics. He is passionate about child welfare because of his experiences working in the Parental Defense Division of the Baltimore County Public Defender’s Office and volunteering with Baltimore City teenagers involved in the justice system.
Cassie Walter
Cassie Walter (she/her) is a first year Master of Social Welfare student at UC Berkeley in the Strengthening Organizations and Communities pathway. Her interest in child welfare reform is influenced by her previous work as a Family Advocate at the Center for Family Representation, a public defense organization representing parents with child neglect and abuse cases in New York City. As part of her MSW program, Cassie is an intern at Just Advocates, a family and systems-level advocacy non-profit. She is also a student researcher at UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center studying interventions for foster youth at risk of commercial sexual exploitation. Cassie received her B.A. in Sociology from Connecticut College.
Celine To
Celine To (they/them) is a 2nd year MSW/MPH student studying health and social behavior and strengthening youth, children, and families at UC Berkeley. As a Bay-area native with lived experience with Child Welfare systems, Celine is an avid advocate seeking equitable policy solutions to support low-income families of color. They are interested in applying an interdisciplinary lens to develop proactive and preventative strategies to support children, youth, and families across systems. As a part of their program, Celine is an intern at Just Advocates, a nonprofit organization providing direct and policy-level advocacy. Celine received their B.A. in Sociology from UCLA.
"Families Not Fees” was offered by UC Berkeley undergraduate student, Cyn Macias-Gomez.