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Sarah Franco and the family that kept growing
For 32 years, Sarah Franco helped turn JAFCO from a kitchen-table operation into a network of homes and support for children. Her retirement brought the work back to a question that had shaped her own family: who will be there?
James Madlom and the case for making room
A duplex, a growing communications firm, and a family formed through adoption: James Madlom’s Milwaukee story keeps returning to a practical question. Who gets a place here?
Felicia Curcuru Found the Future of Child Welfare in a 70-Column Spreadsheet
She began with families, rebuilt around social workers, and turned four months of patient observation into software used by more than 550 agencies. Her enduring product lesson is also her simplest: follow the sticky notes.
Ken Berrick
Ken Berrick founded Seneca Family of Agencies in 1985 in Oakland and spent four decades turning a single home for boys into a 1,900-person nonprofit serving children across California and Washington through a model he calls Unconditional Care. Now CEO Emeritus of Seneca and President and CEO of Just Advocates, he keeps arguing the same line: kids aren't failing the system, the system is failing kids.
Leticia Galyean Sturtevant
Leticia Galyean Sturtevant, LCSW, is the CEO of Seneca Family of Agencies, an Oakland-based nonprofit serving more than 18,000 youth and families a year across California and Washington. She started as a counselor in 2001 and has spent more than two decades inside the same organization, climbing from direct service to running it.