PUBLICATIONS

Kimberly Mays, Member

Kimberly Mays is a parent who was formerly involved in the child welfare system. She currently works for the Pierce County Juvenile Court's Parent-to-Parent Program and is a board member of The Bridge: From Dependency to Community and Beyond.

Both of those programs work with parents who have had their children removed from their care. The programs engage parents early on, educate them about the child welfare system and connect them to parents who have been successfully reunited with their children.

Kimberly has helped to form programs, such as Dependency 201 and 301, which helps support parents just entering the dependency system. The main objective of these programs is to find quicker ways to provide parents with services, resulting in faster permanency for children.

Kimberly is a graduating senior at The Evergreen State College, Tacoma, majoring in public policy. She has been accepted into the Masters in Public Administration Program at The Evergreen State College in Olympia. She also worked as a legislative intern for Senator Adam Kline during the 2007 session.

She has been a member of the Washington State Parent Advocacy Committee and the Children's Alliance. She regularly speaks at the Children Administration's Training Academy, symposiums, summits and leadership conferences, sharing her experiences and understanding of the difficulties encountered by parents and children in the child welfare system. She is the Mentor Coordinator, a board member and Scholarship Committee member of the Post-Prison Education Program.

In addition, Kimberly currently serves on two legislative advisory committees: the Children and Families of Incarcerated Parents Advisory Committee and the Offender Reentry Policy Advisory Committee.

Kimberly is raising her 3-year-old daughter with the help of her daughter's father, whose support enables Kimberly to pursue her passion and her educational and career goals.