Child Welfare’s 21st-Century Research Agenda: Supporting Safe and Effective Investigations through Training Labs

Michael Cull is the associate professor of Health Management and Policy in the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky. He is also an associate director in the Center for Innovation in Population Health. Cull’s work focuses on quality improvement and system reform efforts in child welfare jurisdictions. He has specific expertise in applying safety science to improve safety, reliability, and effectiveness in organizations. His approach leverages tools like organizational assessment and systems analysis of critical incidents, including deaths and near deaths, to build team culture and help systems learn and get better.

Verleaner R. Lane is the project director for Project CHILD as a visiting project specialist and contracted employee within the Institute for Legal, Legislative, and Policy Studies (ILLAPS) at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Lane has over 32 years of child welfare experience, working with children and families.

Lane is the author of Why Didn’t He See the Beauty in Me? In 2018, she started her own motivational speaking company Pour into V’s Vessel Inc. Lane is a dedicated member of St. John Missionary Baptist Church, “a church where everybody is somebody.” She is a proud alumnus of Lane Technical High School where she continues to work with the Black Alumni raising monies for scholarships.

Lane completed her undergraduate work at Northern Illinois University, where she obtained a bachelor’s in sociology/criminology. While at NIU she was the president of Northern Black Choir. She attended graduate studies at Governor State University with a master’s in early childhood education.

From spending more than 10 years of his life in the foster care system to playing college football and eventually signing an NFL contract, Gaelin Elmore was driven by one singular thing—the need and desire to belong. That same desire fuels and drives his work today as a national speaker, facilitator, lived experience expert, consultant, and belonging champion. Only now, he is driven for the belonging of others! Through his unique perspective, Elmore has already inspired tens of thousands of people across the country to think differently about the work they do and its long-term impact. Elmore currently lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, where he gets to live out his dream as husband to his wife, Micaela, and #GirlDad to their two daughters, Laniah and Tatum.

Betsy Goulet is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS), Coordinator of the UIS Child Advocacy Studies Program (CAST), the academic program lead for the human services graduate program in the School of Public Management and Policy, where she has taught for 10 years.

For over 30 years, Goulet has worked in child protection, serving as the founding director of the Sangamon County Child Advocacy Center and working as the children’s policy advisor to the Illinois attorney general. Through a contract with the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services, Goulet developed a new model for child protection training that emphasizes experiential learning and the use of a residential simulation lab and mock courtroom on the UIS campus.

In 2020, the Capacity Building Center for States, part of the Children’s Bureau, created a new website for simulation training, featuring the UIS Training Academy. Goulet also serves as the principal investigator for an OVC Grant with Cook County Public Health focused on reducing childhood fatalities.