Nina Williams-Mbengue

Nina Williams Mbengue retired as Senior Fellow in 2020 from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Child Welfare Project where for nearly 25 years, she provided advice and consultation, interpretation and analysis of child welfare trends, and commentary on child welfare policy initiatives and nuances to other nationally recognized experts, legislative policymakers, public officials, foundation executives, researchers and media representatives. Recognized as NCSL’s child welfare expert across a broad spectrum of organizations, state legislatures and in the subject field. This included providing policy content for NCSL's 2020 Virtual Series on COVID-19 Impact on Child Welfare; managing NCSL's response to the federal Family First Prevention Services Act; co-authoring “Bridging the Gaps Between Research, Policy and Practice in the Field of Child Maltreatment...” a paper which won an EndCAN Foundation Disruption Paper award and was published in the International Journal of Child Maltreatment; and, managing NCSL component of national collaborative “Three Branch” Institutes with the National Governor’s Association consisting of state teams of representatives from the three branches of government developing statewide strategic plans on child welfare system policy. Nina created NCSL’s first Child Welfare Fellows program and has crafted technical assistance programs and written numerous publications for the legislative audience. Prior to NCSL, she worked in the Children’s Division at the American Humane Association. Nina is currently providing policy consultation on child welfare.