Navigating Child Welfare as a Relative Caregiver

Description

(March 2026) 

Keeping Families Connected Minnesota prevents family separation through interdisciplinary legal services and equity-based child welfare policy reform. In this session, Joanna, Fionna and Kelli will provide an overview of relative caregiver rights, how to advocate outside the system to support children in your family, and how to work with child welfare professionals to support the needs of your family.

Joanna Woolman is an innovative and strategic non-profit executive with a strong foundation in child welfare law and community informed policy. She has expertise in organizational leadership, program design, development, management, and evaluation. Joanna has led community-driven policy initiatives in Minnesota and nationally to create diverse coalitions for change in the non-profit, public, and higher educational sectors. For the last fifteen years she been a Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law where she directed the Institute to Transform Child Protection and taught Criminal Law and Feminist Legal Theory. She is a nationally recognized expert and advisor to policy makers and agencies leveraging twenty plus years of litigation experience. For her entire legal career, she has directly represented parents and relatives in child welfare cases. She began her legal work as a state public defender in Minnesota.

Fionna Ek (she/they) joined the KFCMN team in September of 2025. They were drawn to representing relatives and kin because of their deep belief in policy and action promoting family unity and passion for direct client service work. Prior to KFCMN, Fionna clerked for Judges Amber Brennan and Sarah West in Minnesota’s Fourth Judicial District.

Kelli Thiel is a passionate family law attorney committed to advancing justice and equity for families navigating Minnesota’s child protection system. With experience representing parents and relatives in complex family law matters including custody disputes, surrogacy, and child protection – Kelli brings a trauma-informed, client-centered approach to every case she handles.

watch time: 72 minutes

Eligible Certificate of Completion time: 70 minutes