Andrew Russo has worked and volunteered in the nonprofit social service sector at the direct service, management, and network levels for more than 20 years in Boston, New York, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Taiwan. _x000D_
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He is currently the Director of the National Network of Family Support and Strengthening Networks, which he co-founded in 2011 and served as co-chair for until 2016._x000D_
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He began working in the Family Support and Strengthening field with the refugee community in Chicago, by planning, securing funding for, and launching the Strengthening Cambodian American Families Program. He went on to establish and direct new Family Resource Centers in California, including the first Family Resource Center serving the Asian community in Contra Costa County, and the Joy Lok Family Resource Center in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Joy Lok was recognized by First 5 San Francisco as a model program for its many successes, including its responsiveness to community needs, strong parent leadership development component, and high level of father engagement._x000D_
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Because of his strong interest in working collaboratively at the systems level to ensure even more families would be supported, he went on to co-found and serve as co-chair of six Family Support and Strengthening networks at the neighborhood, city, state, and national levels. _x000D_
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He co-founded the San Francisco Family Support Network in 2004, and served as is Director until 2015. In 2009, he co-founded the California Network of Family Strengthening Networks, and served as co-chair for until 2015. _x000D_
In those roles, he co-authored several landmark documents in the Family Support field including the San Francisco Family Support Standards, the San Francisco Family Support Network Policy Platform on Family Economic Success, and the nationally-adopted Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening & Support, which demonstrate how the 9 Principles of Family Support and the evidence-informed Strengthening Families 5 Protective Factors Framework can be applied programmatically with indicators of minimum and high quality practice._x000D_
He earned his B.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University and his M.A. in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University Chicago. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.