Child Welfare Leaders Elected to National Partnership for Child Safety Advisory Group to Foster Learning & Collaboration

The National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS) continues to grow in both membership and leadership. 

This member-led quality improvement collaborative recently announced that Demetrius Starling, Senior Deputy Director of the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services’ Children’s Services Administration, was elected as a new Co-Chair, serving alongside current Co-Chair Chip Spinning, Executive Director of Franklin County Children Services.

The Partnership also welcomed four distinguished leaders to its nine-member Executive Advisory Group:

  • Dr. Alger M. Studstill, Jr., Executive Director of the Social Services Administration, Maryland Department of Human Services
  • Ashley Deckert, Director of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth & Families
  • Donalda Charboneau, Director of Spirit Lake Tribal Social Services, North Dakota (elected to the Executive Advisory Group in May)
  • Heidi E. Mueller, Director of the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services

Together, these leaders - elected by their peers within the Partnership - will help guide NPCS in advancing its mission to improve child safety, strengthen systems of support for families, and promote learning and collaboration across jurisdictions. 

The Co-Chairs provide strategic oversight to the Partnership and its Executive Committee, while the Executive Advisory Group serves as a smaller body of senior leaders that advises on priorities, ensures alignment across jurisdictions, and responds quickly to emerging opportunities. 

“Demetrius has been a steadfast champion of building systems that both support families and protect children,” said Mr. Spinning, FCCS Executive Director and current Co-Chair of the National Partnership for Child Safety. “His leadership, along with the depth of experience represented in our new Executive Advisory Group, will help deepen our collective impact as we continue learning from one another and from data to make every jurisdiction safer for children.”

“Our Executive Advisory Group brings together some of the nation’s most respected child welfare leaders,” Mr. Spinning added. “Their expertise and commitment to safety science and prevention will help the Partnership move beyond crisis response toward proactive, sustainable improvement.”

NPCS includes more than 40 state, county, tribal, and private child-serving agencies dedicated to improving child safety and preventing maltreatment fatalities. Its member agencies represent more than half of the families engaged with the child welfare system nationally. 

The Partnership applies safety science to child welfare practice, helping jurisdictions build safer systems through data collaboration, peer learning, and workforce strengthening.

Through its quality improvement model, NPCS equips jurisdictions with practical tools to turn learning into action. The Safe Systems Improvement Tool (SSIT) supports retrospective reviews of critical incidents to identify system-level factors and opportunities for improvement, while aggregated data from these reviews inform evidence-based changes across jurisdictions.

NPCS also promotes workforce well-being through the TeamFirst Assessment of Safety Culture (TASC), which measures factors such as psychological safety, stress recognition, and workplace connectedness that influence decision-making and frontline practice.

By fostering a culture of learning rather than blame, the Partnership helps agencies act earlier, learn from critical incidents, and strengthen families before a crisis occurs. 

“The National Partnership for Child Safety is about working together to drive innovation in how we protect children and support families,” said Mr. Starling, incoming NPCS Co-Chair. “Our collective strength comes from collaboration, learning, and a shared commitment to continuous improvement. I’m honored to work alongside colleagues from across the country who are deeply committed to strengthening systems that are not only safer, but also more supportive and responsive to the children and families they serve.”

Through this shared leadership, NPCS continues to foster a national learning system that improves practice, strengthens the workforce, and drives upstream solutions that prevent harm before it happens.

Learn more about the National Partnership for Child Safety at https://nationalpartnershipchildsafety.org.

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