About Us

The core team assembled to carry out this mission includes some of the nation’s leading child welfare researchers, practitioners, and evaluators.  The Child Advocacy Law Clinic of the University of Michigan Law School is the oldest child welfare law clinic in the nation, combining practical, hands-on advocacy with sophisticated law and policy analysis.  That dual focus will merge in this QIC.  

Don Duquette, director and founder of the Clinic, is the QIC-ChildRep Project Director, and his colleague, Clinical Professor Frank Vandervort, assists in the effort. Robbin Gonzalez, a lawyer and public policy specialist from the UM Institute for Social Research serves as Assistant Director for Management and Administration.  University of Michigan’s partner is Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, led by Ada Skyles and Britany Orlebeke, who will conduct the evaluation of the research and demonstration sites.  Established in 1985, Chapin Hall is widely seen as the nation's premier child welfare policy research center.  Their mission is to build knowledge that improves policies and programs for children and youth, families, and their communities. components.

Other collaborators include the American Bar Foundation, the leading research institute for the empirical study of law, legal institutions and legal processes in the United States; National Association of Counsel for Children, a professional membership organization of child law attorneys and the ABA accredited certifier of Child Welfare Law Specialists; and KidsVoice of Pittsburgh, nationally recognized for its pioneering interdisciplinary approach to child advocacy and for its sophisticated case management technology.