Board Info
Robin Arnold-Williams, POC Co-founder and Board Member
Robin Arnold-Williams is a national leader in child-welfare reform. In 2008, Gov. Chris Gregoire appointed Robin as the new director of the Governor's Executive Policy Office. In this position, she works with the state's Office of Government Management Accountability and Performance to ensure that spending reductions accompany government reforms. As the former secretary of Washington's DSHS, Robin oversaw an organization that serves more than 1.5 million people a year in the areas of medical assistance, alcohol and substance abuse, children's services, economic assistance, child support and juvenile rehabilitation. Previously, she served as the executive director of the Utah Department of Human Services from 1997 to 2005. Robin holds a bachelor's degree in social work from Central Michigan University, and master's and Ph.D. degrees in social work and a certificate in gerontology from the University of Utah.
Connie Ballmer, POC Co-founder and Board Chair
Connie Ballmer is an active community volunteer with a passion for the well-being of children, especially those living in out-of-home care. She first envisioned an organization focused on children in the child-welfare system after reading heartbreaking news articles about foster children in Washington state. The stories motivated her to meet with UW School of Social Work Dean Edwina Uehara and former DSHS secretary Robin Arnold-Williams to discuss innovative approaches to change that were rooted in science and promoted best practices. She provided the seed capital to launch Partners for Our Children. Connie is a longtime supporter of local and regional nonprofit organizations, and serves on the boards of National Public Radio and Lakeside School.
Rose Berg-Fosnaugh, President, Rose Strategies
Rose has more than 30 years of experience in corporate reputation, crisis communications, and political organizing. As President of Rose Strategies she serves clients in both the public and private sector, helping to position their unique brands, as well as shape healthcare, technology, and breakthrough science and medicine policies for the 21st century. Prior to this she served at Edelman, the world's largest independent agency. As founding partner of Lucas, Bryant & Berg, Inc., she led the launch of the Gates Library Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. While working with the Foundation, she served as its first spokesperson, initiated the Bill & Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program including announcements about the first foundation grants to the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). She graduated from the University of Washington, where she majored in broadcast journalism and political science. Rose has served on boards of several non-profit organizations including Partners for Our Children, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, Mothers Against Violence in America and The Economic Opportunity Institute.
Barbara Dingfield, Partner, The Giving Practice
Barbara Dingfield, a consultant to private and corporate foundations, works for The Giving Practice, a service of Philanthropy Northwest. From 1994 to 1999 she served as the director of community affairs at Microsoft, overseeing corporate and employee giving, as well as employee volunteer programs. Prior to joining Microsoft, Barbara was executive vice president and director at Wright Runstad & Company, a regional commercial real-estate development firm. Barbara's civic and volunteer activities in Seattle for the past 25 years include serving on the NPower and YMCA of Greater Seattle board, and on the steering committee of Sound Families, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative for homeless families. She has a bachelor's from Swarthmore College and a master's in economics from Columbia University.
Susan N. Dreyfus, Secretary, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
Susan N. Dreyfus became DSHS secretary in May 2009, and comes to the POC board with a wealth of experience in national and regional child-welfare issues. She served as executive vice president with Rogers Behavioral Health Systems Inc., and as senior vice president and chief operating officer of the National Alliance for Children and Families, and Families International. Prior to her appointment as DSHS secretary, Susan served as administrator of the Division of Children and Family Services within the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. In this role, she successfully led many state reform efforts in child welfare. Susan has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, and attended the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Lee Huntsman, President Emeritus, University of Washington
In addition to serving as the UW president, Lee served as a UW provost and vice president for academic affairs. He joined the UW faculty in 1968 and holds the faculty appointment of professor of bioengineering. He served as director of the Center for Bioengineering - now the Department of Bioengineering - from 1980 to 1996. He also served as associate dean for scientific affairs in the School of Medicine from 1993 to 1996, when he became acting provost. In addition to serving on the POC board, he was recently selected by Gov. Chris Gregoire as the first executive director of the Life Sciences Discovery Fund Authority, a public-private partnership designed to give life sciences a high profile in state education. Lee has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Denise Revels Robinson, Assistant Secretary, Children's Administration, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
Child welfare is Denise's life's work. She began her career as a child welfare case manager in New York City and Washington, D.C., and most recently served as executive policy advisor at the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Previously, she was director of the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare. In just six years, Denise led the way to safely reduce the number of children in out-of-home care from 6,800 to 2,600 by helping reunite children with their families in 70 percent of cases. At the same time, 30 percent of the children were adopted with 24 months of entering foster care. Denise's national work includes serving on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators and as a member of the board of directors of Black Administrators in Child Welfare. Denise earned a master's in social work from Howard University School of Social Work, and a bachelor of arts in sociology from West Virginia State University.
Paul Shoemaker, Executive Director, Social Venture Partners Seattle
Paul leads Social Venture Partners Seattle, a non-profit organization advancing the common good by engaging and connecting a community of philanthropic leaders, strengthening nonprofits, and catalyzing efforts to accelerate system change. Before coming to SVP Seattle, Paul was a product manager at Nestle USA, then group manager for worldwide operations at Microsoft Corporation. He has an MBA in marketing and finance from the University of Texas and a bachelor's in accounting from Iowa State University. He is a member of the board of the Microsoft Alumni Foundation.
Edwina Uehara, Dean, University of Washington School of Social Work
Edwina Uehara, POC co-founder and board member, is dean of the UW School of Social Work, where more than 500 undergraduate and graduate students annually prepare for positions in a variety of social-work disciplines and settings. Edwina has taught at the School of Social Work since 1990 and became dean in 2006. She holds a bachelor's from Eastern Washington University, a master's in social work from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She was awarded the School of Social Work Students' Choice Teaching Award in 1994, followed by the UW Distinguished Teaching Award in 1996. Her academic interests center on understanding the interplay of the social structures and cultural constructs of health, illness and healing. The UW School of Social Work is ranked third among the nation's schools of social work, according to U.S. News & World Report.
