Foster America Alumni Convening

Connect with Child Welfare leaders, Foster America partners, and alumni in an engaging discussion about the opportunities and challenges in changing systems.

We are excited to welcome JooYeun Chang who will kick off the forum.  Joo is the acting assistant secretary and principal deputy assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  She joined the Biden Administration in February 2021 after serving as the senior deputy director at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Services Agency, where she oversaw the state’s child welfare system, including Children’s Protective Services, the foster care system, adoption services and juvenile justice programs. Prior to her work in the Michigan state government, Chang served as a managing director at Casey Family Programs, the nation’s largest operating foundation focused on improving the child welfare system. She has led work to identify, develop and disseminate information about the most promising best practices in child welfare. She previously served as head of the Children’s Bureau in the Administration for Children of Families; the Children’s Bureau is the first federal agency to focus exclusively on improving the lives of children and families. There, she administered more than $7 billion in federal programming to support national child protection, foster care, guardianship, and adoption programs.