Allegheny County, in November of 2015. Judge McCrady has served in the Family Division presiding over juvenile dependency, juvenile delinquency, related domestic relations, protection from abuse, termination of parental rights and adoptions. Judge McCrady was named the Supervising Judge of the Family Division in 2024. In addition, she was appointed by the Governor and currently serves on the Juvenile Court Judges Commission and serves as Secretary of the Commission. Judge McCrady was appointed by the Governor to serve on the State Council for Interstate Juvenile Supervision. She co-chairs the Pennsylvania Bar Association Children’s Rights Committee. Judge McCrady has spearheaded efforts to create a trauma informed Family Law Center. Prior to her election Judge McCrady spent 15 years at KidsVoice, the non-profit legal services organization that represents dependent and dually adjudicated children in Allegheny County. At KidsVoice, Judge McCrady worked as a Staff Attorney, a Supervising Attorney, and the Program and Policy Coordinator. While there, she represented thousands of children, supervised attorneys, and social service professionals, managed the new hire training program, and led the effort in creating specialized advocacy units to ensure that all children receive quality wholistic advocacy. Judge McCrady received her B.A.in political science from Duquesne University in 1995 and her J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law in 2002.

Marisa K. McClellan is a seasoned legal professional and accomplished administrator with a distinguished career spanning over two decades. She represents clients in custody, divorce, and adoption matters and serves as court-appointed counsel and Guardian ad Litem in parental rights cases. Before joining Tucker Arensberg as Senior Counsel, Marisa served as the Administrator at Dauphin County Children and Youth. In this role, Marisa oversaw a staff of approximately 200 employees across multiple departments, including child welfare case management, fiscal operations, legal operations, and program management. She managed an annual $55 million budget and ensured compliance with Pennsylvania child welfare regulations, fostering a safe and supportive environment for children and families in the Capital Region. Marisa’s dedication to public service is evident through her extensive leadership roles and collaborative efforts, including the establishment of innovative programs such as specialized housing for youth with special needs and multi-agency task force teams addressing mental health and substance use issues. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she spearheaded policy adaptations that ensured the safety of children, families, and staff. Previously, Marisa served as Senior Staff Attorney for Dauphin County Children and Youth, where she led litigation efforts in dependency court, orphans’ court, and administrative law hearings. Her experience spans juvenile law, child abuse and neglect, family law, and compliance with state and federal regulations. She also supervised legal teams, conducted extensive training, and contributed to statewide child welfare initiatives. Marisa’s commitment to the legal and child welfare communities is reflected in her affiliations with several boards and organizations, including the Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators Association, the National Association of County Human Services Administrators, and the Pennsylvania Bar Association, where she co-chairs the Children’s Rights Committee. She has also been recognized with awards such as the 2017 Pennsylvania Child Advocate of the Year.

Mr. Welshonce is an attorney at KidsVoice, a non-profit organization that provides legal representation to abused, neglected and at-risk children.  At KidsVoice, he has served as a staff attorney representing children in dependency cases and as the legal training coordinator for the organization. He is currently a supervisor overseeing a dependency team and a specialty team which works with transition age youth (TAY) through age 24, many of whom have aged out of foster care and have few supports.  That team offers  a wide range of services to provide a safety net and help remove barriers to stable employment, housing and health for TAY, including: legal representation in summary and landlord-tenant hearings in Magisterial District Court; expungement of delinquency and adult criminal records; assistance for TAY with disabilities with obtaining Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and benefits from Allegheny County’s Office of Developmental Supports and Office of Behavioral Health; workforce development support; representation of TAY in insurance grievances/appeals when they have been denied necessary medical, dental or mental health treatment; assistance for TAY who have been victims of identity theft or have other credit issues; and advocacy for TAY who are parenting and their children through the team’s Two-Generation program to ensure that TAY and their children have access to all available supports, including housing, childcare and early intervention services.  Mr. Welshonce is a member of several organizations and committees focused on children’s issues in the child welfare system, including Allegheny County’s Older Youth Workgroup.  Mr. Welshonce received his B.A. from West Virginia Wesleyan College and his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Ms. Lawrence has served as the Juvenile Court Hearing Officer for Cumberland County since December 2013. Prior to her current position, she was the Managing Attorney for the Law Offices of Women In Need, a civil legal representation project focused on representing victims of domestic violence. Following her graduation from the University of Denver College of Law, she was the Director of Public Interest Programming and a clinical instructor in the Children’s Advocacy Clinic for the Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson School of Law. She maintained an adjunct teaching position for several years as a writing instructor for a supplemental bar examination preparation workshop. Ms. Lawrence was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Scholarship Award, a public interest scholarship program through the University of Denver College of Law. She has presented as faculty for CLEs through the Cumberland County Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, and the American Bar Association. She long served as the Chair of the Cumberland County Bar Association’s Pro Bono Section and was previously appointed to the National Advisory Committee for Equal Justice Works. She is currently active on the Cumberland County Children’s Roundtable, participating in the Congregate Care, School Attendance, and Independent Living workgroups. She serves on the Cumberland County Court Appointed Special Advocate Advisory Panel and the National CASA Judicial Leadership Council. Currently, she serves as co-vice chair of the PBA Children’s Rights Committee. She has been a member of the statewide Juvenile Court Hearing Officer Workgroup, the AOPC Congregate Care Workgroup, the Statewide Children’s Roundtable, and the Autism and the Dependency Courts Taskforce. In 2022, Ms. Lawrence was honored as a recipient of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Samuel W. Milkes Award for service to improve access to justice.

Judge Bush has served in the Family Division of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas since 2014. Previously she practiced child welfare law for approximately 20 years. During that time, she represented individual children in juvenile court, supervised attorneys who represented abused and neglected children, consulted to Pennsylvania counties, trained hundreds of social workers and worked collaboratively on the state and local levels with government agencies, child advocates and providers of services. Judge Bush’s previous positions have included work with Pennsylvania’s Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network, KidsVoice, Juvenile Law Center, the ABA Center on Children and the Law, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Judge Bush holds her law degree from Yale Law School and a Master’s Degree in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management. 

Currey Cook is the Director of the Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project and Senior Counsel in the National Headquarters Office of Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and people with HIV. Before joining Lambda Legal in 2013, Cook was the Co-Director of the Bronx office of The Children’s Law Center New York a non-profit law firm representing children in New York City Family Court, for three and a half years. Prior to his work at CLCNY, Cook served as a consultant to The National Juvenile Defender Center in Washington, D.C., worked in Burundi on an American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative to assist with reintegrate former child soldiers into the community and, served as a visiting professor for the Child Advocacy Clinic at Rutgers Law School Newark. Before relocating to the New York City in 2009, Cook lived in Anchorage, Alaska and was an attorney with the Office of Public Advocacy (OPA) for twelve years. Cook worked as a juvenile defense attorney and guardian ad litem and later as supervising attorney of OPA’s Child Advocacy Section. In addition to his work at OPA, Cook advocated on behalf of undocumented youth and gay asylum seekers and received the Alaska Bar Association Pro Bono Service Award for a Public Sector Attorney in 2006. He has also received the Alaska Light of Hope Award for his advocacy on behalf of children. Cook graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.A. in Journalism (Broadcast News) and his law degree from Mercer University in 1994. At Lambda Legal, Cook advocates on behalf of LGBTQ+ youth and youth living with HIV in child welfare and juvenile justice settings and on behalf of youth experiencing homelessness. He works at the state and federal level and achieves systemic reform through a mix of litigation, proactive law and policy development, and training for professionals, including child advocates, working with youth in out-of-home care.

Sydney Groll is a Child Advocate Attorney with the Support Center for Child Advocates, representing children and youth in both the dependency and criminal justice systems in Philadelphia. She started her legal career in 2021 as an Independence Foundation Public Interest Fellow with a project focused on preventing unnecessary removals of children from their communities and homes, strengthening kinship connections, and empowering community. In 2023, Sydney worked with a client who needed the support of the dependency system but was fearful of losing her Survivor’s Benefits if she entered foster care. This experience inspired Sydney to join Philadelphia’s Social Security Stakeholder group and pursue statewide legislation alongside advocates across Pennsylvania. She is an active member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, serving on the Executive Committees of both the Young Lawyer’s Division and the Family Law Section, and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. She has a Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology and Spanish from Loyola University Maryland, and a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers Law School in Camden, NJ.

Ms. Johnston-Walsh is a clinical professor and the director of the Children’s Advocacy Clinic at Penn State University Dickinson School of Law. The Clinic receives court appointments to represent children in various civil matters, including dependency, high conflict custody actions, domestic violence actions and contested adoptions. The Clinic provides an experiential opportunity for law students to practice in the courtroom, and also to focus on policy reform and legislative developments. Prior to directing the Children’s Advocacy Clinic, Ms. Johnston-Walsh served as a supervising attorney in the Family Law and Disability Law Clinics, and as a staff attorney at MidPenn Legal Services. Ms. Johnston-Walsh also served as a policy director for a statewide child advocacy organization. Ms. Johnston-Walsh now directs the activities of the inter-disciplinary Penn State Center on Children and the Law. Before attending law school, Ms. Johnston-Walsh worked as social worker in the public school system of Virginia. She received her Juris Doctor from The Dickinson School of Law and her Masters in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. She previously served as chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Children’s Rights Committee and was the Child Advocate of the Year in 2007.

Caitlin Demiral is an Assistant Solicitor at Dauphin County Children and Youth Services. Prior to joining DCCYS, she clerked for the Honorable Jeremiah D. Zook at the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in Chambersburg, PA. Caitlin graduated from Penn State Dickinson Law in 2021 where she was awarded the Miller Center Advocate of the Year for exemplifying a spirit of public interest and pro bono service. She is also a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, go rams! When Caitlin is not in the courtroom, she can be found tending to her garden or going on long walks with her husband and beloved dog.

Theo Ciccarelli Cornetta, Esq. is a Supervising Attorney at the Child Advocacy Unit (CAU) for the Defender Association of Philadelphia. The CAU represents around half of the population of youth in foster care in Philadelphia, as their stated interest counsel and guardian ad litem. Theo previously worked as counsel for the Department of Human Services in Philadelphia. Prior to that, Theo created and acted as Director of the LGBTQ+ Project for Indiana Legal Services – a civil legal aid firm representing low income individuals across the state of Indiana. In this position, they represented LGBTQ clients in issues impacting poverty, including family law, employment issues, access to healthcare, youth homelessness and access to education and social benefits. While in this position, Theo changed the law in Indiana to allow transgender individuals to waive publication in their name changes and forced Medicaid and Medicare to cover gender affirming healthcare. They also collaborated with an LGBTQ youth group to provide legal services for youth, including representing youth in dependency proceedings. Theo served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University McKinney School of Law, where they developed and taught a skills-based course entitled “Litigating LGBTQ Issues.” The course focused on foundations of LGBTQ+ law and students’ ability to advocate through briefs and memorandums. Theo received their law degree from Temple University in 2015. Prior to law school, Theo worked for Women Against Abuse in Philadelphia as a paralegal representing survivors of intimate partner violence. Theo also worked as the Crisis Intervention Coordinator at Middle Way House in Bloomington, Indiana working with survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence.

Ms. Ornato has a BA degree in Political Science and Anthropology and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh. She received her law degree from American University Washington School of Law. Kristen joined KidsVoice in 2014 and had 18 years of prior experience in Tax, Employee Benefits, Wealth Planning, Corporate Administration and Trust Administration, as well as working with individuals with special needs. At KidsVoice, her work focuses on supporting current and former clients with Social Security issues, as well as connecting individuals to appropriate services through the Office of Intellectual Disabilities and Office of Behavioral Health. She also helps current and former KidsVoice clients with minor criminal matters, name changes, credit and identity theft, and guardianship.

Claire Grandison (she/her) is a Supervising Attorney at Community Legal Services (CLS) of Philadelphia where she works in the SSI Unit and the Youth Justice Project. She focuses on increasing access to services and SSI benefits for older youth with disabilities, and providing holistic, community-based legal services to youth. She represents clients in all levels of Social Security claims, from application to appeals in federal court. Claire has worked on increasing access to benefits for youth in foster care since 2016 by conducting trainings and engaging in local, state, and federal advocacy. Claire was previously an Independence Foundation Fellow and a Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellow at CLS. She received her J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law and her BA from Vassar College.

Luna Isaiah Floyd (they/he) is an Equal Justice Works fellow with Lambda Legal’s Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project and a 2024 graduate of Harvard Law School. Their work centers the needs of transgender youth in foster care and juvenile justice settings, as well as transgender youth experiencing homelessness. While in law school, they worked on cases challenging bans on sports participation for trans youth and bans on gender-affirming care for minors through internships and externships with the ACLU LGBTQ+ & HIV Project, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and GLBTQ+ Legal Advocates and Defenders. As a student, they also participated in Harvard’s Child Advocacy Clinic and LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic. Before law school, they worked to reform state foster care systems as a paralegal at Children’s Rights. Luna Isaiah graduated from Brown University in 2019, earning a B.A. in Public Policy.

Getting her start as a young attorney defending children and youth with disabilities, Heidi has been championing the needs of kids with mental and behavioral health needs for over two decades. Heidi worked as an attorney with both the Colorado Protection and Advocacy Agency for People with Disabilities but also with the federal government, as an attorney with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. Baskfield took her legal experience and blended it with politics and policy, serving as a legislative liaison to former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter. After serving under Governor Ritter, Baskfield left to head up government affairs for Children’s Hospital Colorado, a role that expanded over a decade where she ended up serving as the Vice President of Population Health and Advocacy. Baskfield brings this unique collection of diverse experiences in law, policy, politics and healthcare to advance the work of Speak Our Minds.