Achieving ‘A Home for Every Child’ Through High-Quality Legal Representation

All 50 states have now joined the federal government’s A Home for Every Child (AHFEC) Initiative. But where do child welfare attorneys and courts fit into this national movement? 

This session will provide an overview of A Home for Every Child initiative, its progress, and areas where attorneys and courts are key partners to success. As state agencies set their sights on AHFEC’s goals, panelists will discuss areas where high-quality legal representation is critical: attention to family preservation and reasonable efforts, prioritization of kinship care, permanency advocacy, amplifying youth voice, and more.  

Panelists include Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families Alex Adams, Lived Experience Expert Julia Stumler, NACC Policy Counsel Natalece Washington, and NACC Chief Legal Officer Allison Green (Moderator). This is a free webinar, but advanced registration is required via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ue3BPRMqQFys8Ys0jgxHQg

Alex Adams, PharmD, MPH, serves as Assistant Secretary for Family Support, leading the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since October 2025.  Assistant Secretary Adams brings years of health, human services, education, and regulatory expertise to the role.

Prior to leading ACF, Dr. Adams spent more than ten years in Idaho State Government, most notably as Governor Brad Little’s budget and regulatory director and state Department of Health & Welfare director. He made significant efforts to improve Idaho’s child welfare system, enacting kin-specific licensing standards, announcing paid family leave for foster parents, extending foster care to age 23, and overseeing record recruitment and retention of foster homes, and ending diversion of Social Security survivor benefits.

Julia Stumler, Lived Experience Expert, Counsel for Kids Consultant, NACC. Julia Stumler began her advocacy at eighteen while aging out of Indiana’s foster care system, and has since dedicated her work to improving outcomes for children and youth in care. Drawing on her lived experience, she has contributed to state legislative initiatives ensuring foster youth have access to equitable auto insurance, revising congregate care treatment, and securing legal representation for all youth in foster care.

Julia served a two-year appointment to Indiana’s Commission on Improving the Status of Children and holds a four-year appointment to the Indiana Supreme Court’s Child Welfare Improvement Committee. At the federal level, she contributed to the artificial intelligence model for the 2026 Fostering the Future executive order and authored a congressional report recommending revisions to the Family First Prevention Services Act.  Julia is a December 2025 graduate of Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, where she earned her degree in Public Management and Leadership. She currently serves as the Coordinator for Governmental Affairs at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. 

Natalece Washington, JD, CWLS, Policy Counsel, NACC. Natalece Washington, JD, CWLS, joined Team NACC in January 2021 as Policy Counsel where she leads the Counsel for Kids Campaign at the state level.

The campaign influences and drives policy change to ensure legal representation for all children experiencing foster care.

Prior to joining NACC, Natalece served as Policy Administrator with the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, Director of Operations for Fulton County CASA, Inc., and Senior Child Advocate Attorney at the DeKalb County Child Advocacy Center. Natalece has been certified by NACC as a Child Welfare Law Specialist since 2015. 

Allison Green, JD, CWLS, Chief Legal Officer, NACC. Allison Green, JD, CWLS joined Team NACC in 2019. She manages the organization’s policy advocacy, oversees amicus work, and provides training and technical assistance to child welfare practitioners nationwide.  Allison previously served as a Foster America Fellow at Missouri’s Children’s Division and as Senior Supervising Attorney at the Children’s Law Center of Washington, D.C.

Allison started her career as a Jesuit Volunteer at Legal Services for Children in San Francisco and also worked as a counselor at a youth shelter. She earned her law degree at Georgetown, where she was a Public Interest Law Scholar and recipient of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers Student Advocacy and Juvenile Justice Clinic Public Service Awards. She is a certified Child Welfare Law Specialist (CWLS) and has volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate. She is currently licensed to practice law in Washington, D.C.