Heather Cox Rosenberg understands the impact a stable family can have for a child for a lifetime. As children, she and her siblings had unstable early starts that resulted in them being removed from their mother’s care. Fortunately for Heather, her birth father’s family was there for her and stepped in to care for her when the violence between her mother and step-father continued to escalate. Her sisters and brother, however, had different fathers and no family could step up to take them in. All three of Heather’s siblings ended up in foster care and ultimately aged out with no identified permanent family.
Her personal experiences with the child welfare systems of Florida and Massachusetts led Heather to become an impassioned foster and adoptive parent and advocate who believes that foster parents and caregivers play a critical role in maintaining long term relationships for children in care serving as the link to keeping youth connected to their siblings and family. Since 2009, she and her husband Evan have fostered sixteen children ultimately adopting three of the children in their care.
Heather recognized early in her foster career that there was a definitive need for support for families caring for children in care and joined the Tallahassee Area Foster and Adoptive Parent Association in 2009 before becoming the President of the association in 2014. Heather has advocated vigorously to improve child welfare practice both at the state and federal levels for many years and joined the Florida Department of Children and Families as the Children’s Ombudsman in August of 2016 with the hope to help give children in the Florida foster care system a voice to express their needs and a mechanism to help effectuate positive changes to the system of care.
Heather’s passion for service is evident in the work she does with the foster and adoptive community as well as with victims of domestic and sexual violence. In 2015, she was presented with a President’s Volunteer Service Award for her volunteer work within the foster care community and in 2014 won the Child Welfare Excellence Award for Circuit 2. In 2009 the Big Bend Victim Assistance Coalition presented her the Agnes Furey Victim/Survivor Award for her work as a survivor advocate working to help other victims and survivors of sexual violence.
Heather has worked for the State of Florida since 2011 and taught political science Tallahassee Community College since 2007. She holds a Master’s degree in Applied American Politics and Policy, completed a graduate program in emergency management and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Florida State University. She and her husband, Evan, live in Crawfordville with their three children, Warren, Liam and Elie.
Her personal experiences with the child welfare systems of Florida and Massachusetts led Heather to become an impassioned foster and adoptive parent and advocate who believes that foster parents and caregivers play a critical role in maintaining long term relationships for children in care serving as the link to keeping youth connected to their siblings and family. Since 2009, she and her husband Evan have fostered sixteen children ultimately adopting three of the children in their care.
Heather recognized early in her foster career that there was a definitive need for support for families caring for children in care and joined the Tallahassee Area Foster and Adoptive Parent Association in 2009 before becoming the President of the association in 2014. Heather has advocated vigorously to improve child welfare practice both at the state and federal levels for many years and joined the Florida Department of Children and Families as the Children’s Ombudsman in August of 2016 with the hope to help give children in the Florida foster care system a voice to express their needs and a mechanism to help effectuate positive changes to the system of care.
Heather’s passion for service is evident in the work she does with the foster and adoptive community as well as with victims of domestic and sexual violence. In 2015, she was presented with a President’s Volunteer Service Award for her volunteer work within the foster care community and in 2014 won the Child Welfare Excellence Award for Circuit 2. In 2009 the Big Bend Victim Assistance Coalition presented her the Agnes Furey Victim/Survivor Award for her work as a survivor advocate working to help other victims and survivors of sexual violence.
Heather has worked for the State of Florida since 2011 and taught political science Tallahassee Community College since 2007. She holds a Master’s degree in Applied American Politics and Policy, completed a graduate program in emergency management and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Florida State University. She and her husband, Evan, live in Crawfordville with their three children, Warren, Liam and Elie.
Larry Rein, Executive Director ChildNet
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Trish Patty Gunnels ZenczakPassionate advocate
Mother, wife, daughter, sister, non relative caregiver. |