Mary became President and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey at the start of 2023 after becoming the vice president in 2003. She joined the organization in 1993 to head what is now known as ACNJ’s KidLaw Resource Center, which provides information on laws and legal processes affecting New Jersey children.

Mary’s primary policy areas include foster care, kinship care, children’s health, and more recently, juvenile justice. She has authored guides and articles on child welfare-related topics, including the Kinship Legal Guardianship Guide, and has represented ACNJ as amicus curiae before the NJ Supreme Court in several cases. Mary is a member of the New Jersey Children in Court Improvement Committee, the NJ Medical Assistance Advisory Council, the New Jersey Council for Juvenile Justice System Improvement and its School/Justice Partnership Subcommittee. Recently, she was appointed Acting Co-Chair for the NJ Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect. She previously chaired the Child Welfare Section and the Pro Bono Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Prior to joining ACNJ in 1993, Mary practiced family law in New Jersey. She received both her J.D. and B.A. from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

New Jersey Department of Children and Families Acting Commissioner Joseph Ribsam leverages years of experience in child welfare innovation and best practice, working at the state and national levels, in service to New Jersey’s children, youth, and families.

Commissioner Ribsam began his career at the New Jersey Department of Children and Families in 2008, serving as Legal Counsel before advancing to leadership roles including Assistant Commissioner for Legal, Regulatory, and Legislative Affairs, and ultimately, Deputy Commissioner.  During his earlier stint with NJ DCF, Commissioner Ribsam was instrumental in advancing the Department’s reform agenda, supporting work to achieve improved outcomes for families and making significant progress toward satisfying a federal consent decree over the child protective services agency.

Following his initial tenure with NJ DCF, Commissioner Ribsam spent more than five years as Director of the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families, where he focused on helping state systems shift efforts towards preventing system involvement and increasing support for families. His team led the implementation of voluntary services to assist families at risk of formal system involvement. Under Commissioner Ribsam’s leadership, New Hampshire also initiated a statewide program to connect youth with community-based resources as an alternative to court involvement. Commissioner Ribsam oversaw the development of New Hampshire’s statewide children's system of care for behavioral health and the creation of a navigator program that helps families find community-based services and support.

Prior to his appointment as Commissioner in 2026, Ribsam served as Director of Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Policy at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  In that role, he led the Foundation’s policy efforts related to youth- and family-serving systems.  In his three years at the Foundation, he helped establish a national children’s behavioral health collaborative and a leadership development program to help state system leaders improve children’s behavioral health outcomes.

Commissioner Ribsam earned a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers School of Law-Newark, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Secondary Education from The College of New Jersey.

Rebecca Bryan, DNP, APN, is the Executive Director of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families Office of Resilience. She oversees initiatives that transform New Jersey into a trauma responsive, healing centered state, grounded in positive and adverse childhood experiences science as well as principles of healing centered engagement. Dr. Bryan has decades of experience in nursing, including as a primary care nurse practitioner and in community outreach. She has been an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and Rutgers University Camden and has published research demonstrating how risks generated by ACEs align with risks for wounding and delayed healing. Dr. Bryan earned her DNP from Rutgers University, Camden, her MSN from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and her BSN from Gwynedd-Mercy College. She holds the Trauma Competency Certification from Lakeside Global Institute.

Kayann Foster is an activist for systemic change across all the systems that she has navigated. She is a former foster youth, formerly homeless and a survivor of domestic abuse. The knowledge from these experiences informs her current work and advocacy. As a LEEP Consultant, she uses her child welfare experience to work with the offices of DCF to transform the system for the families currently involved with the hope that families will not have to interact with the system unnecessarily.  She also serves on lived experienced boards that address homelessness both locally and at the state level. As a certified PACES- Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences trainer across the state of New Jersey, she has facilitated workshops for both organizations and community members on the impact of trauma across a lifetime.  Her current role in homeless planning allows her to help others who are navigating homelessness use their voices to transform the system.

When she is not advocating for others, she is enjoying spending time with and watching her four daughters and son grow. Her passion is to help community build resilience through awareness, education and helping community to build safe healing spaces where all can thrive.

Dr. Adriana Galván is a Professor of Psychology and the Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is also the Co-Executive Director of the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent.  As a neuroscientist her career has been focused on adolescent brain development and how it supports developmental milestones during this significant period of life.  Her research expertise focuses on characterizing the neural mechanisms underlying adolescent behavior to inform policies that impact young people.  Dr. Galván has published over 140 scientific articles on the topic and is the author of The Neuroscience of Adolescence (Cambridge University Press). Her research, generously funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and numerous private foundations, has been featured in several media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, PBSNewsHour, and NPR. She received her B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior from Barnard College, Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Cornell. She has received multiple recognitions for her work, including from the National Academy of Sciences, American Psychological Association, Cognitive Neuroscience Society and William T. Grant Foundation. She is also the recipient of the UCLA Gold Shield Faculty Prize. In 2018 she was a Fulbright Scholar in Barcelona and in 2019 she received the White House Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineers (PECASE) award.

Tamia Govan joyfully serves as the Outreach Coordinator for the Office of Family Voice within New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families (DCF). She began her career at DCF as part of the inaugural cohort of Powerful Families, Powerful Communities. Her journey is featured in the documentary Truth to Transformation, where she shares her story alongside two other remarkable survivors of New Jersey’s child welfare system.

Committed to advancing equity, she contributed to shaping fair and inclusive policies as a member of DCF’s Race Equity Steering Committee – Policy & Practice Subcommittee and New Jersey’s Four Branch Institute which included representatives from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, alongside constituents with lived experience with DCF . Tamia’s expertise has been recognized on international stages, including the United Nations’ 2nd Session of the Permanent Forum of People of African Descent and the Social Workers Confronting Racial Injustice Conference at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is a member of the Parent Legislative Action Network and has served as a Lived Expert Consultant for the Federal Children's Interagency Coordinating Council.

Tamia is a devoted mother, a proud grandmother, and a warm friend to everyone she meets.

Dashaan Jennings, MPA, Newark, NJ is a nonprofit leader, trainer, advocate, and lived-experience expert dedicated to improving outcomes for youth and families impacted by the child welfare system. He is the Founder and CEO of STR8UP Employment Services, a New Jersey nonprofit that connects young people and families to employment, career development, mentorship, and supportive resources.

Drawing from his own lived experience in New Jersey’s child welfare system, Dashaan has worked alongside state agencies, community organizations, and families to advance meaningful systems change. His work includes serving as a Lived Experience Expert with the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, supporting parent and family leadership, facilitating workforce and child welfare training, and contributing to statewide efforts focused on strengthening families and improving mandated-reporting practices.

Dashaan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a minor in Criminal Justice from Kean University and completed his Master of Public Administration at Rutgers University–Camden. His work is grounded in a simple belief: people closest to the challenges should have a meaningful voice in designing the solutions.

Xavier McElrath-Bey serves as Executive Director of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (CFSY) and is a co-founder of the Incarcerated Children’s Advocacy Network (ICAN).During his many years at the CFSY, Xavier has fought to abolish life without parole for children in America, and has played a role in ending this practice in several states including Nevada, Utah, Arkansas, South Dakota, and North Dakota.  At age 13, after accumulating 19 arrests and seven convictions, Xavier was arrested, charged with a gang-related murder, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.  

While growing up in prison, Xavier became increasingly remorseful for his past actions and decided to change for the better. Hopeful of someday living a “normal life,” Xavier prepared himself by earning an associate's degree in arts and an associate's in general education from Carl Sandburg College, a bachelor's degree in social science from Roosevelt University, and a certificate in Computer Technology. Xavier was also inducted into the Franklin Honor Society for outstanding scholarship. He began to envision a better life where he would be able to put his remorse into action -- what he has referred to as his "eternal apology" to the victim in his case, Pedro Martinez, and his family.
In 2002, Xavier was released at age 26 after serving 13 years. 

While volunteering as a YMCA youth boxing coach, Xavier landed his first job as a Starbucks barista and decided to pursue a master's degree from Roosevelt University’s Counseling and Human Services Program. He graduated with honors in 2006, and since then, he has worked in various fields including violence prevention, youth counseling, clinical research, youth advocacy, and sentencing reform. Prior to his current employment at the CFSY, Xavier worked for Northwestern University’s Health Disparities & Public Policy program, where he conducted over 800 clinical research interviews with formerly incarcerated youth. In 2016, he met Pedro’s family in a restorative justice healing circle. That day, they forgave him and forged a relationship that continues to this day.

In addition to leading the CFSY, Xavier currently serves as a Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) Advisory Council Member at MacArthur Foundation, an Advisory Council Member at Eighth Amendment Project, an Ambassador Alumni with Represent Justice, and an Advisory Council Member at Fair Chance Institute (FCI). He’s also served as a board member at the Community Justice for Youth Institute (CJYI) and as a member of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force (PATF) working group on community & police relations.

Outlets including the New York Times, People Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Teen Vogue, PBS NewsHour, The Guardian, The Marshall Project, and others have shared Xavier’s story and advocacy efforts, and in recent years, he received the Justice Roundtable Excellence Award, the JustLeadershipUSA Leading with Conviction Award, the Bright Promises Foundation Champion for Children Award, and the 2023 Juvenile Law Center Leadership Prize in recognition of his visionary leadership and groundbreaking advocacy efforts at the CFSY. In his powerful TEDx Talk titled “No Child is Born Bad,” Xavier reminds all of us that no child should ever receive a “death in prison” sentence and that all children, including those who have made horrible mistakes, have the capacity for positive change.