Episode # 29: Erin Kelley-Siel
Welcome to our latest edition of WonkCast: People Power Policy.
Our laws and funding task the same agency with removing children from families when there’s a safety risk, and helping those same families avoid crisis and heal.
Today’s guest says that asking one agency to hold both is a fundamental problem.
Erin Kelley-Siel Spent over thirteen years in public service leadership in the state of Oregon, including four as Director of the Oregon Department of Human Services.
In 2016 she joined Friends of the Children, serving as Chief Officer of Strategy & Innovation to scale a long-term professional mentorship model for children who have experienced multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences before kindergarten.
She reframes that safety and support tension into shared partnership, with government leading on safety and community supporting families through durable relationships.
We talked about how this tension shapes the way leaders make decisions, and how the wrong pockets problem complicates sustainable financing.
These fundamental questions of accountability, governance, and funding are essential for anyone interested in shaping what comes next.
