BRW Consulting

Mary holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and her Clinical Licensure; she is also a Certified Co-Occurring Disorder – Diplomat.  She is a Certified Mediator, Family Group Conferencing Facilitator.  She has also served as an Educational Advocate for children and families with developmental disabilities and served on the developmental disabilities advisory board for the school district. She has had 30 years of experience serving at-risk populations including individuals who have been diagnosed with disabilities through her employment and community volunteer work.  She was one of the founders and developed a tutoring and mentoring program for children at risk for failure in their educational school setting.  She was also designated to serve on a statewide task force to implement drug prevention programs in the public school within the local school district.  While in her graduate program, she conceptualized and implemented a program for the persistently mentally ill clients being served by a non-profit agency to help identify potential crisis situations brought on by failing to be medication compliant and established a program for individual counseling for their mental illness.  Mary served as project director for the Federal Department of Health and Human Services Missouri Training Program for Rural Child Welfare Workers; Principle Investigator for SAMSHA’s Pregnant and Post-Partum grant; and the Children’s Bureau Regional Partnership Grant.  As PD and PI she was responsible for the implementation and success of three 5 year million dollar grants.  Each grant included an extensive evaluation component for the success of the grants including client outcomes and training of Child Welfare and Grant Staff.  During Mary’s career with the Missouri Training Project and her other employment she has authored and presented training on several modules to Child Welfare Workers and community partners including topics addressing Compassion Fatigue, Worker Safety, The Effects of Child Abuse and Neglect on Child Development, Engaging the Substance Abusing Client, Working with Adolescents, Building Community Collaborative, Effective Supervision, Domestic Violence and several additional modules.  Mary also served as the Circuit Manager for Children’s Division in Greene County Missouri Child Welfare System.  As Circuit Manager, Mary was responsible for working with all aspects of out of home placement, family centered services and investigations.  During her career in Child Welfare she was the supervisor for 7 counties in Kansas’s privatized Child Welfare Case Management.  For 11 years she was the Executive Director of Alternative Opportunities/Preferred Family Healthcare substance abuse and child welfare services.  As the Ex. Director of the SUD and CW programs, she was responsible for Managing, and Supervising the Children’s Division Child Welfare contracts with the state of Missouri, including Residential Programs, In Home Intensive Services, Family Reunification and Preservation, and Performance Based Foster Care Case Management and all services for clients in the Co-Occurring, trauma informed gender responsive Substance Abuse services for Men, Women and their families.  

Lisa D’Aunno, J.D,is the Training Director at the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice at the University of Iowa School of Social Work and a national child welfare consultant. As an attorney, former social work administrator, trainer and consultant, Lisa has extensive experience in family support, child welfare in-home services, supervision, safety planning, substance affected families, paternal involvement, cultural competence and ethics training, mental health peer support, and family involvement in decision-making, and stakeholder engagement.  

Lisa was Project Director for the National Resource Center for In-Home Services between 2009-2014, providing technical assistance to states in improving in-home services.  Between 1996 and 2002, as Director of Best Practice Projects for the Illinois DCFS Inspector General, Lisa helped design and administer the Intact Family Recovery (IFR) Project in Chicago, Illinois, an intensive integrated child welfare and substance abuse treatment services for 300 intact families with a substance-exposed infant.  

Lisa is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Iowa School of Social Work, where she teaches child welfare policy and practice, family law, and human services supervision.  She has also served as Clinical Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and taught law and social work at the University of Chicago School of Social Services Administration.

Vincent J. Geremia is a national expert in Child and Adult Welfare. He received his BA in Psychology from the University of Missouri – St. Louis in 1974; went on to complete a degree in professional nursing in 1985 from Maryville University; and in 1991, completed an interdisciplinary Master’s Degree in Public Administration/Art Therapy at Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville. Vince worked in Missouri public welfare for 29 years with the Missouri Division of Family Services as a county family support Caseworker and office Supervisor, as a county child welfare office Supervisor, and as statewide In-home Services Program Manager as well as Quality Assurance/Improvement manager in Central Office.  After retiring from Missouri, Vince was employed by the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services as a Service Region Administrator over a 15-county area and later as Assistant Director in Central Office.  As Assistant Director, he served as statewide departmental coordinator of Continuous Quality Improvement, Council on Accreditation, and Employee Suggestion processes.  In addition, he has work experience as a professional nurse, a clinical social worker, and an Art Therapist in in-patient medical facilities.  During 2003, Vince served as Project Manager of the Process Evaluation sub-study under Phase II of the External Evaluation of the Kansas child welfare system, a documentation of the evolution of Kansas’ efforts to reform child welfare.  In 2017, Vince retired from Kentucky state employment and since has enjoyed travel and volunteer activities.  He currently serves on the national level as a peer reviewer/team leader for the Council on Accreditation, a CFSR consultant reviewer for the Administration for Children and Families, and a board member of the Center for Family Strengths.  Vince presently resides in northeastern Kentucky with his son, Gregory, and their dog, Alfred.