Speaker Biographies
Michelle Barclay, J.D. presenting General Session 4 and Workshop C2
Michelle Barclay, Esq. has been the director of the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Justice for Children’s since 1996. Before becoming a lawyer, she was a nurse, specializing in ICU and trauma care at both Grady and Emory Hospitals. Her degrees include a Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Emory University, and a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies from Georgia State University. She is also co-founder along with her husband Andrew Barclay of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University School of Law. The Barton Center is partially funded by donor advised fund with the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta which is named in honor of Andy Barclay’s maternal grandparents, Lewis and Sarah Barton.
Amy L, Bell, J.D. presenting Workshop B3
Amy Lynne Bell is a graduate of Mercer University twice over ¾ from the College of Liberal Arts in 1999, summa cum laude, and from the Walter F. George School of Law in 2004. In law school, she worked as a law clerk with the Office of the Child Advocate, investigating DFCS compliance issues in assigned cases and looking at whether to expand the statutory list of mandated reporters. She also clerked for the District Attorney's Office for the Macon Judicial Circuit in the juvenile and property divisions as a Third Year Practice Act student. She started at the Office of the Circuit Public Defender, Macon Judicial Circuit in January, 2004, where she has stayed ever since, working in both the property and juvenile divisions.
Abby Boldin presenting General Session 5
Abby Boldin is the Program Director at Georgia Cares, a nonprofit that is charged as the single, statewide coordinating agency to connect services and treatment care for victims of child trafficking. In this role, Ms. Boldin is responsible for day- to- day management of the program’s goals, procedures, and practices. She also oversees and maintains the service delivery of the program, ensuring that it is best-practice, effective, and consistent. Previous to her current position, Ms. Boldin worked at the Governor’s Office for Children and Families (GOCF) and the Multi-Agency Alliance for Children (MAAC). During Abby’s time at MAAC, she coordinated services for youth with mental health diagnosis, with the goal of serving these youth within their community. Ms. Boldin also assisted in leading regional trainings to youth in foster care to empower them in making positive decisions as they transitioned into adulthood. At GOCF, she managed grants to local communities that added components to programs that focused on health and fitness, military support, grade level reading, and increased educational attainment. In the Youth Development Division of GOCF, Abby became involved in the statewide response to Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC). These roles prepared her as Program Director at Georgia Cares by demonstrating the importance of utilizing the strengths of youth to prepare for self-sufficiency, with a focus on leveraging community partnerships and collaborations to best serve the needs of those being the CSEC population. Ms. Boldin earned her Bachelors of Social Work from the University of Georgia, and her Masters of Social Work from Georgia State University.
Lila Bradley, J.D. presenting Workshop B1
Lila Newberry Bradley has focused her practice on the needs of children for the past 10 years, and joined Claiborne & Fox in 2013. Ms. Bradley received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature in 1982 from the University of Georgia and graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia Law School in 1985. For the first 12 years after graduation, Ms. Bradley practiced business law, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and corporate securities. From 2005 to 2012, Lila directed the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation’s Children’s Law Programs, working with volunteer lawyers to provide pro bono legal representation for children in foster care and children who were the subject of high conflict custody disputes. During the time that her practice focused on the rights and needs of children, Lila authored the publication, “Family Preservation in Georgia: A Legal Guide to Preventing Unnecessary Removal to State Custody,” and she served as a visiting scholar with the Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic of Emory University School of Law. Ms. Bradley continues to have a special interest in the legal issues surrounding children in foster care, and she provides training to foster parents on how the law and the court process can ensure that children’s rights and interests are protected. Ms. Bradley served as a member and Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Association of Counsel for Children for five years.
Judge Gerald Bruce, MA, J.D. presenting General Session 3
Judge Gerald Bruce the juvenile court judge for the Enotah Circuit. Before becoming a juvenile court judge, Judge Bruce spent time as a felony drug prosecutor and as a Special Assistant Attorney General. He earned his M.A. from Louisiana State University and his J.D. from the University of Georgia.
Melanie Bruchet, J.D., LLM presenting Workshop C3
Melanie Bruchet is the juvenile court prosecutor for the Bibb County District Attorney's Office. She also serves as the Youth Protection Chairperson for the Central Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of America and is involved in the MG ALERT anti-trafficking initiative in Central Georgia. Melanie has provided training to New Jersey DYFS workers on LGBT youth in placement and presented nationally on human trafficking and LGBT youth with members of the Department of Homeland Security and Polaris Project. Ms. Bruchet received her bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College and her J.D. and LLM from Mercer University.
Melissa Carter, J.D. presenting Workshop D1
Melissa Carter is the executive director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center. She directs the instructional and policy activities of the Child Law and Policy Center and the Juvenile Defender Clinic; supervises Center faculty, staff and students; and teaches related courses. Prior to joining the law faculty, Ms. Carter served as the appointed state Child Advocate. She has extensive experience in public administration and policy, having also worked for the state’s Court Improvement Project. Carter formerly practiced with the law firm of Claiborne, Outman and Surmay, PC, representing clients in adoption, assisted reproductive technology, and juvenile court deprivation cases and was previously affiliated with Emory Law as Barton’s 2002 postgraduate fellow (now the Robin Nash Fellow). She was selected as a 2009 Marshall Memorial Fellow. Ms. Carter received her undergraduate degree in psychology and her law degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Jen Carreras, J.D., CWLS presenting Workshops D2 and E1
Jen Carreras is a certified Child Welfare Law Specialist who manages a private practice focused in the areas of child welfare law and family law. She is a Georgia Supreme Court Fellow, serving on the Committee on Justice for Children’s Cold Case Project, a legal team that works with state and local agencies to improve outcomes for children in foster care. Ms. Carreras also serves as the President of the Georgia Association of Counsel for Children.
Tomieka R. Daniel, J.D. presenting Workshop B4
Tomieka R. Daniel is a Supervising Attorney for the Macon Regional Office of Georgia Legal Services Program. Mrs. Daniel has been practicing since 2002 and she primarily handles family law, housing, elder law and family violence cases for low-income Georgians. Ms. Daniel has conducted numerous trainings on Domestic Violence issues throughout the state. Her latest project is the development of the Teen Dating Violence Prevention Project, which is designed to educate middle and high school students on Teen Dating Violence. Ms. Daniel is a 2002 graduate of Mercer University School of Law and is the first recipient of the Law and Public Service Program Award for Outstanding Public Service by a Recent Graduate. Ms. Daniel received the Justice Robert Benham Award for Community Service, presented by the State Bar of Georgia. In addition to her legal work, Mrs. Daniel is an active member of the Sigma Epsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and is the Immediate Past Chief Volunteer Officer of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Georgia. She is a member of the Macon Bar Association, the Houston County Bar Association, and the Georgia Association for Black Women Attorneys. Additionally, she serves on numerous Domestic Violence Task Force groups.
Rachel Davidson, J.D., MBA presenting Workshop C1
Rachel Davidson is the Juvenile Court Liaison with the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services. She has been in this position since 2011 and serves many functions, including serving as a point of contact for Georgia’s juvenile court judges and child advocates and serving as a resource to child welfare staff throughout the state. Prior to this position, Ms. Davidson served as a Policy Specialist with the Georgia Office of the Child Advocate, a Fellow on the “Cold Case Project” (a project through the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Justice for Children), and a Child Advocate Attorney at the DeKalb County Child Advocacy Center. Ms. Davidson graduated from Stetson University College of Law in 2006 with her JD and MBA, after having spent a year as a visiting student at Emory Law School, where she was involved with the Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic. She graduated from the University of Florida with her BA in Business Administration in 2003.
Laurie-Ann Fallon, J.D., CWLS presenting Workshop E1
Laurie-Ann Fallon is the Special Assistant Attorney General (SAAG) for Barrow County Department of Family and Children Services. Ms. Fallon has worked as an Associate and as an Appointed SAAG since the Fall of 2005. Ms. Fallon has received certification from National Association of Council for Children as a Child Welfare Law Specialist. Ms. Fallon serves on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Association of Council for Children and on the Advisory Board for the Barton Child Law and Policy Center. She received her J.D. from Emory University School of Law.
Dr. Priscilla Faulkner, PhD presenting General Session 2
Dr. Priscilla Faulkner grew up in a home with parents who fostered children and spent the majority of her childhood with foster siblings. She herself is the mother of both biological and adoptive children so she brings both a professional and a personal perspective to dealing with foster and adoptive children. Dr. Faulkner holds a bachelor degree in psychology from Converse College. She has a masters degree in psychology from Georgia College. She also has a masters and doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the Georgia School of Professional Psychology. She has been licensed to practice in Georgia since 1997.
Ira Foster, J.D. presenting Workshop E3
Ira L. Foster is a senior supervising attorney with the Georgia Legal Services Program in Macon, Georgia. Mr. Foster attended undergraduate college at Fort Valley State University and graduate school at Bowling Green State University. He obtained his Juris Doctor of law degree from North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. Mr. Foster is a member of the American Bar Association, the Macon Bar Association, the Houston County Bar Association, the Georgia Alliance of African American Attorneys and the William Augustus Bootle Inn of Court. Some honors and awards for Mr. Foster include being selected as an American Bar Association Foundation Fellow, Macon Bar Association’s Lawyer of the Year in 2007, Fort Valley State University Alumni of the Year in Social Sciences, the Dublin-Laurens County Black Festival’s Committee Citizen of the Year, the Adopt A Role Model Program Big Brother of The Year, the State Bar of Georgia Supreme Court Justice Robert Benham’s Community Service Award, The Houston County NAACP 2009 Community Service Award, and the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., State of Georgia 2011 Fraternity Brother of The Year. Ira currently serves as a board member of the Fort Valley State University Housing Foundation, The Alpha Georgia Education Foundation, Inc., and The Central Georgia United Way. Ira is the President-Elect of the Macon Bar Association.
Darice Good, J.D., CWLS presenting Workshop A1
Darice Good is a partner a solo practitioner and a co-founder of the Georgia Office of Family Representation. She obtained her bachelor degree from the University of Washington and her juris doctorate from Mercer University School of Law. Ms. Good is a member of the National Steering Committee for the Parents Representation Project of the American Bar Association. She is a Certified Child Welfare Law Specialist by the National Association of Counsel for Children and a member. She is an active member of the Parent Attorney Advocacy Committee and regularly presents to parent attorneys and child welfare advocates across the country.
Craig Goodmark, J.D. presenting Workshop A4
Mr. Goodmark is currently a consultant at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. and an education law attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Goodmark was previously the director of the TeamChild Atlanta Project at ALAS. In that capacity, Mr. Goodmark provides technical assistance, advocacy, and full legal representation to low income families whose disabled children are not having their developmental, educational or mental health needs met. Prior to entering legal services, Mr. Goodmark spent five years in private practice at law firms specializing in education law, with an emphasis on special education litigation. Mr. Goodmark has represented teachers, students and families of children with disabilities. Mr. Goodmark currently sits on the State Bar of Georgia Children and the Courts Committee. Mr. Goodmark is also member of the national organization for special education lawyers, the Council of Parent Attorneys & Advocates, and is a recent graduate of the Leadership Atlanta. Mr. Goodmark is an honors graduate of the University of Florida College of Law.