Kristen Pisani-Jacques, JD, CWLS, joined the NACC team in February 2020 as Training Director. In this role, Kristen leads the vision, objectives, and direction of NACC’s training department to effectuate NACC’s strategic plan goals of promoting excellence in the child welfare field, prioritizing race equity and authentic engagement of individuals with lived expertise. She manages substantive coordination of NACC’s training offerings, including “Red Book” trainings, customized state child welfare trainings, monthly member webinars, annual conference content, and other grant or contract-based training. Kristen enjoys collaborating and consulting with law office leaders, NACC members, Court Improvement Program (CIP) directors, and state and national partners to identify and respond to the training needs of the child welfare field. She develops, delivers, and moderates trainings for national audiences of child welfare practitioners. Kristen serves as lead editor and coordinates content for The Guardian, NACC’s quarterly law journal for its members, and she is an editor of the fourth edition of Child Welfare Law and Practice: Representing Children, Parents, and Agencies in Neglect, Abuse, and Dependency Cases (“the Red Book”).
Prior to NACC, Kristen served as the Deputy Director of the Guardian ad litem (GAL) Project at the Children’s Law Center in Washington, D.C. Kristen helped to lead GAL program design, management, and evaluation, guided appellate strategy, and ensured high-quality representation of clients in the D.C. child welfare system. During her eleven years at the Children’s Law Center, Kristen also served as a case-carrying GAL, supervising attorney, and senior supervisor. She has over a decade of experience representing children in child welfare and high-conflict custody cases, as well as representing caregivers seeking adoption, guardianship, and custody. Kristen earned her law degree at Georgetown, where she participated in the Street Law and Domestic Violence clinics.
Kristen is currently licensed to practice in Washington, D.C. and Maryland and is a certified child welfare law specialist (CWLS). Kristen lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband and daughter. She is happiest when she is having family dance parties, watching Jeopardy and the Real Housewives, and planning her annual family Halloween costume.