Child Welfare is a Masterclass in Leadership

When people talk about executive presence, they often picture someone in a boardroom. Confident posture, polished language, steady voice. But my own executive presence wasn’t built in a traditional setting.

It was forged in child welfare.

In that environment, leadership was survival. Every decision had heavy consequences. And every day demanded a kind of presence built on resilience.

What other industry requires you to:

• Make complex decisions with limited data and high risk, but also be very clear on what does and does not constitute an emergency.

• Hold your own in hostile, high-stakes rooms, often in court, challenged by attorneys whose job is to catch you off balance.

• Advocate for vulnerable people with no agenda but their well-being.

• Build trust across silos, systems, and communities where collaboration, despite competing priorities and tight deadlines, was the only way forward.

• Influence without authority, persuading leaders and stakeholders far outside your chain of command. Because you can’t move mountains alone, you need buy-in.

• Maintain grace under fire daily, navigating trauma, threats, conflict, and human pain without losing clarity.

That’s not “nice nonprofit experience.”

That’s executive-level talent strategy in its rawest form.

Because in those moments, I couldn’t lead with rage or force. I had to lead with compassion, grace, compromise, rapport building, and quiet but steady strategy. All of it executed through trust and listening.

It taught me that executive presence isn’t about polish, it’s about how you show up when the stakes are highest.

It’s about the courage to speak with clarity when others are trying to knock you off balance.
It’s about the discipline to keep listening, even when it would be easier to push.
It’s about leading people through ambiguity with humanity at the center.

So when I step into corporate spaces now, I carry that foundation with me. The setting is different. The vocabulary is different. But the essence of executive presence, the ability to hold space, inspire trust, and influence outcomes, remains the same.

Child welfare wasn’t just my past. It’s my foundation for every challenge I take on today.

And it’s a truth I’ll always hold onto: child welfare was the ultimate training ground for leadership.