Denise Goodman has been a child welfare professional for over 40 years. She began her career working with emotionally disturbed teens in a residential treatment facility and has held positions as a Protective Services Social Worker, Residential Treatment Coordinator, Research/Education Specialist, Training Specialist, and foster parent.  In addition, as an independent consultant, Denise conducts workshops and provides consultation throughout the United States and Canada on topics related to foster care, adoption, and kinship care. Denise earned her MSSA from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and her PhD in social work from The Ohio State University.  Her dissertation research examined the causal factors of adoption disruption. She has also written many curricula for staff and resource parents, co-authored a section of The Field Guide to Child Welfare, and published numerous articles and tools on foster care/adoption issues including the Icebreaker Toolkit, Resource Family Guide, Child Specific Recruitment Tool, Recruiting 4 Free and Step by Step Guide for Targeted Recruitment. 

Denise was the senior consultant and Recruitment, Development and Support of Resource Families Strategy Lead for the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) from 1992 to 2018. With AECF, she worked in many state and local sites on system reform including Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. In addition, Denise has worked to reform the practice of foster care, adoption, and kinship care, reducing the use of group care and helping agencies find permanent families for children and youth who have been waiting the longest.  She continued this work as a Senior Fellow with Case Commons until 2021. 

Denise has worked with many states to support them in increasing their pool of foster homes, especially for teens, and reduce the overuse of congregate care and youth-specific recruitment. She is currently supporting California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Wyoming and Clark County, Nevada. 

Denise has received recognition for her training from the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program including the Linda Pope Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award for Training, OCWTP Award of Excellence, the Northeast Ohio Regional Training Program Trainer of the Year, and the North Central Regional Training Program Trainer of the Year.   In addition, Denise was inducted into the Ohio State University-College of Social Work’s Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Alumni in 2012 and was the North American Council on Adoptable Children’s (NACAC) Child Advocate of the Year for 2015.  She currently serves as the President of the Board for NACAC.