Kayla Powell (she/her)

Kayla Powell (she/her) is the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) and Youth Development Coordinator for the Iowa Department of Human Rights. In this position, Kayla primarily focuses on overseeing the NYTD data collection on older youth in and transitioning from foster care, advancing authentic youth engagement and positive youth development within state agencies and contributing to juvenile and criminal justice research activities using participatory models. She is the staff support to Iowa’s Youth Justice Council, leads a data team of young adults with lived child welfare experience, coordinates Iowa’s Family and Youth Engagement Summit and serves on Iowa’s Children’s Justice Advisory Council. Outside of this role, Kayla is a Young Adult Consultant with the Capacity Building Center for States, a Jim Casey Fellow with the Annie E Casey Foundation, and a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). Kayla is a national public speaker, having presented at places like Harvard University, the National CASA Conference, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice Conference, and multiple Annie E Casey convenings. She also has a degree in Occupational Therapy and is a licensed and board- certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. Kayla has over 9 years of lived child welfare experience and 9 years of professional child welfare experience. She is a proud mom to Kniko Ky and enjoys travelling and practicing yoga.