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Heidi Redlich Epstein

Associate Director

Kin Projects, State Permanency Barriers, Trial Skills
Heidi Redlich Epstein

Heidi Redlich Epstein

Image: Mitch Higgins, American Bar Association

Contact Heidi Redlich Epstein

With training and expertise in law and social work, Heidi brings a dual perspective to her projects at the Center. She joined the Center in 1998, leaving a position as a law guardian for Legal Aid of Maryland. She draws on that direct advocacy experience, and earlier work as a residential social worker for female juvenile offenders, in her work at the Center.

As Associate Director, Heidi leads both the kinship policy and state partnership work and helped develop and co-manages grandfamilies.org with Casey Family Programs and Generations United. Through this website and her affiliated state and national kinship projects Heidi works to support kin caregivers through legal reform, practice standards, training, and technical assistance. She has authored many national and state kinship publications and tools, including the NARA Model Family Foster Home Licensing Standards, upon which the federal Model National Family Foster Home Licensing Standards were based in 2018. Heidi is currently working with a group of national kinship advocates and kin caregivers to develop the first kin-specific licensing standards. 

As Director of State Partnership Projects, Heidi manages the award-winning Permanency Barriers Project. A variation of this project has assisted counties in five states including New York, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Kentucky, and Minnesota by identifying and analyzing barriers and making system improvements to reduce the time children spend in foster care and, when possible, prevent their entry. Heidi also leads the Center’s Trial Skills Training for Child Welfare Professionals, an interactive training that the Center has provided to agency, parent, and children’s attorneys, as well as caseworkers, at national conferences and in over 18 states.

Through a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach Heidi uses her social work and legal background to improve communication, network building, and stakeholder partnerships. Heidi obtained her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, with a concentration in Human Services, from the State University of New York at Binghamton and completed a joint JD/MSW program from the State University of New York at Buffalo.