Dr. Kerry Littlewood holds a master’s degree (2003) and doctorate (2008) in Social Work (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Dr. Littlewood is an instructor at the University of South Florida and President of AAJ Research & Evaluation, Inc. As Executive Director for the Lucille W. Gorham Intergenerational Community Center (2010-2013, Winner of the National C. Peter Magrath Award for University-Community Engagement, 2012), Dr. Littlewood developed and evaluated intergenerational programs designed to improve community health outcomes. In 2012-2015, she served as the Assistant Director of the School of Social Work at East Carolina University. Dr. Littlewood specializes in program evaluation, community-based participatory research, randomized control trials, and using mixed methods approaches to better understand at-risk children, families and older adults. Dr. Littlewood has worked on a broad scope of child welfare evaluations, including Title-IVE Waiver program evaluations and a national study on child maltreatment in child care settings. Since 2015, she has worked as a national consultant and evaluation capacity building coach for the Capacity Building Center for States. As Research Director of the Florida Kinship Center at the University of South Florida (2004-2010), Dr. Littlewood has two decades of expertise in designing and evaluating programs to support families headed by grandparents and other relatives raising children. Selected examples of Dr. Littlewood’s investigations include: 1) the KIN-Tech kinship navigator randomized control trial federal demonstration program evaluation for Children’s Home, Inc. (Tampa, FL); 2) the National Grandfamilies Outcome Workgroup examination of support groups for grandparents raising grandchildren; 3) the COMRADE Trial: a stepped-up care study on diabetes and comorbid distress and depression in integrated primary care settings to promote behavioral changes to improve biological outcomes; 4) the EMPOWER Trial: a randomized control trial providing community health worker intervention to rural African American women with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus; and 5) the Triple P Positive Parenting Program Evaluation in twenty-one counties in North Carolina.
Dr. Kerry Littlewood, Ph.D., M.S.W.
Lawrence “ Larry” Cooper, MSW, LCSW has supervised prevention and intervention programs at the Children’s Home Network since 2001. He has presented locally, statewide and nationally on his work with children and relative caregiver families. He was recognized as 2016 Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Tampa Unit and the 2017 Social Worker of the Year by the Florida Coalition for Children and 2018 Child Welfare Champion Award from the Florida Department of Children and Families. He has successfully administered large community-based support services to children and families in the Tampa Bay area during his tenure at CHN and in his current role oversees SEEDS, Healthy Families, Children’s Board Family Resource Centers, Kinship and the Pinellas Support Team. He led a federally-funded Navigation grant, one of only seven awarded nationally from The Children’s Bureau under the 2008 Foster Connections legislation from 2012-2015. Additionally, Mr. Cooper serves as a Contributing Editor for GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy. This journal will play an important role in extending knowledge, building collaborative partnerships, and promoting research relating to relative caregiver families. Mr. Cooper is a founding member of (GrOW) Grandfamilies Outcome Workgroup, that is studying the impact and benefits of Kinship Support Groups to caregivers. Mr. Cooper earned both his Master’s of Social Work degree in 1993 and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology in 1990 at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa.
Larry Cooper, M.S.W.
Deborah Langosch, PhD, LCSW, is a consultant, psychotherapist and trainer in Brooklyn, NY. She is a founding member of GrOW and has had the pleasure of being actively involved in their relevant work since its inception.
Dr. Langosch developed and directed the Kinship Care Program at NYC’s largest social service agency for the past 17 years and was the Director of the Loss and Bereavement Program for Children and Teens there until 2019. She is a Co-Managing editor of the GrandFamilies on-line journal.
Deborah has trained thousands of providers locally and nationally in the areas of loss, trauma and bereavement as well as in the mental health issues of kinship care families.
In 2018 she was recognized by the National Association of Social Workers and received their “Exemplary Silver Leadership” award.
Dr. Deborah Langosch, Ph.D., LCSW
Donna Fedus is a gerontologist educator, adjunct professor, and principle of Borrow My Glasses. Borrow My Glasses, LLC (BMG) is an education company dedicated to aging & caregiving from a new perspective co-founded by gerontologist Donna Fedus & producer Lauren Lewis. They work with organizations and universities who want engaging and effective ways to educate audiences on issues of aging, and with professionals, caregivers and students who want to better understand aging issues to navigate their life and career. Borrow My Glasses clients benefit from the unique combination of Donna’s deep subject matter expertise with Lauren’s ability to shape the look, feel and flow of content so it engages and resonates with audiences. Borrow My Glasses develops learning and evaluation strategies, designs & delivers educational programs, creates content and produces multimedia workshops & events delivered in workplaces, communities, and classrooms nationwide. Learn more at borrowmyglasses.com.
Donna B. Fedus, M.A.
Amy is an attorney committed to helping individuals and families navigate difficult decisions and plan for the future. She practices in the areas of estate planning, Medicaid planning, elder law, and probate.
Amy previously worked at MFJ Legal Services in New York City as a senior staff attorney and pro bono coordinator in the Kinship Caregiver Law Project where she worked with grandparents raising grandchildren. She has also worked as the public policy coordinator and lobbyist for Disability Rights Wisconsin.
She currently serves on the Board of Directors for New Bridge of Madison and the Public Interest Law Section of the Wisconsin State Bar and is also a member of the Dane County Bar Association. Amy received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin Madison and her J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law.
She also earned a Master’s in Social Work and Certificate in Applied Gerontology from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Amy is licensed to practice law in New York and Wisconsin.
Amy Roehl Devine, J.D., M.S.W.
Dr. Michelle Rosenthal is the Founder and Principal of Data with Purpose LLC. Dr. Rosenthal holds a doctorate in cultural anthropology and feminist studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz and has conducted research and evaluation in the field of child welfare and kinship care for over twenty years, both in the United States and in South Africa. Dr. Rosenthal holds a certificate in design thinking for the social sector, from the Stanford d. School, Designing for Social Systems Program. Dr. Rosenthal specializes in community-based, participatory research in diverse practice contexts, utilizing a mixed-method and culturally-responsive engagement approach to study the impact of social service programs in the lives of under-served children and families. She is a Capacity Building Evaluation Coach for the U.S. Children’s Bureau’s Capacity Building Center for States. Her recent kinship evaluation work has focused on cross-sector collaborations between the technology and child welfare fields for innovative, service delivery solutions to support families navigating systems of care. She was the Principal Investigator for a national demonstration grant in kinship navigation that piloted an online portal for delivering needed information and resources to kinship families in the United Ways of California-211-iFoster Kinship Navigator Collaborative Project and is currently the Principal Investigator for the United Ways of California-211 Kinship Navigator Program.
