Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors 2020

Speakers

Robert Blackwell

Robert Blackwell was appointed in 2012 as the Chief of the Office of Racial Equity Practice for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Bob leads the Department’s efforts to address and eliminate racial disparities and unwanted disproportionality in the Illinois Child Welfare System. This effort is supported through the Department’s Permanency Enhancement Project Initiative and ultimately seeks a “Racially-Informed Practice” in Illinois.

Mr. Blackwell holds a Masters in Social Work degree from the University of Illinois. From 1977 to 1984 he worked as a counselor, job developer and program director at the Springfield Urban League in Springfield, Illinois. In 1984, he joined the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services where he served in a variety of executive-level management positions until 1992, including the areas of resource development, quality assurance, personnel, internal investigations, auditing and licensing. Bob also served as the Special Assistant to the Director for the Department.

From 1992 to 2004 Mr. Blackwell served a stint as Executive Director of the Springfield Housing Authority and established the consulting firm of Ujima Management Consultants, Inc. As a consultant, he provided case management administration, information systems development, facilitation services and race relations consultation services to non-profit and governmental clients.

Mr. Blackwell returned to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in 2004 as the Regional Administrator of Central Region where he planned and coordinated service delivery of Field Operations and Child Protection services for 7 ½ years.

Bob continues to be active in his community through his service on many boards and task forces, including the Public School’s Minority Hiring Task Force, the Springfield Dominican Sisters Antiracism Team and his church, Abundant Faith Christian Center. Bob is married to Carolyn for 47 years, they share 3 daughters, Tracey, Nicole and Deanna. He is also an avid fly fisherman, consultant and entertainer to his five (5) grandchildren, Rosa, Elijah, Jordan, Jude and Jonas

Elke Hansen

Elke is the Regional Director of the Belleville Region with Caritas Family Solutions (Belleville, Illinois). She has worked with Caritas for the last 7 ½ years, overseeing foster care, residential treatment program, community counseling and a senior employment program, with over 100 employees and approximately 500 clients and their families.

She is the daughter of German parents, born and raised in Switzerland, and a US citizen for the last 14 years. She received a National Degree in Social Work and Pedagogy from the School of Social Services in Solothurn, Switzerland and her Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) from St. Louis University. She holds a Licensed Clinical Social Work license in Missouri.

Elke speaks six languages, Swiss German, German, French, Italian, Spanish and English. She lives with her husband, who is from Chile, South America, in St. Louis, MO.

In Switzerland, she worked in a residential setting for young adults with severe physical and mental challenges, rural drug and alcohol counseling agency, teens in independent living setting, survival assistance for drug addicted women working in on the streets

In the US, she worked at a battered women shelter, living and working in the shelter for undocumented immigrants in East Los Angeles, inner-city residential setting for abused and neglected children, young adults and pregnant/parenting teen girls, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, residential setting for traumatized children and self-harm program

Racial equity work, official functions:

Elke is a member of the Southern Region Transformation Team, consisting of private child welfare agencies & the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). She is co-chair of the Illinois statewide CWAC Committee on Racial Equity Practice in Child Welfare.