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 Linda S. Spears
Vice President
Corporate Communications and Development
Child Welfare League of America
Ms. Spears has worked at both the practice and senior management levels in child welfare services for twenty-four years. Linda was recently appointed Vice President, heading up CWLA's media, messaging, corporate relationships and individual development activities. She previously recently served as Associate Vice President for Programs where she led CWLA's work in program, research, consultation and training. While at CWLA, Linda has also served as Director of Child Protection and as Senior Consultant working with numerous state and local jurisdictions to assist them with program and practice improvement, agency management and accountability. She has facilitated community-wide needs assessment, multi-system case analysis, and children's services planning in local and state jurisdictions.
Prior to joining CWLA in 1992, Linda served as the Director of Field Support with the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. As a member of the department's senior leadership team she oversaw agency-wide services in foster care and out-of-home placement, family preservation, child protection, domestic violence, housing, permanency planning and adoption, child care, cultural competence, health care, and Indian child welfare. During her tenure she was responsible for developing new solution-oriented foster care service models, several of which gained national attention and ultimately helped to drive increased spending in state foster care programs and resulted in recognition by the National Foster Parent Association and others.
 Linda is an enrolled member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. She is a member of the board of directors for The Family Violence Prevention Fund, a national organization concerned with violence in the lives of women and children. She is an advisor to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Family Violence program and serves on their Greenbook Policy Advisory Committee. Linda has published several works on domestic violence and child welfare and was awarded the Pioneer Award for her innovative working integrating services to women and children who are victims of violence.
Because of her depth of knowledge and breadth of experience, Linda has emerged as a key national spokesperson on today's core child welfare issues. She has been interviewed multiple times on national television, including CNN, Fox News: The O'Reilly Factor, WRC-TV, and KSTP-TV.
For more information, or to schedule an interview with Linda, please contact Joyce Johnson at 804/492-4519 or jjohnson@cwla.org.
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