
Foster America
Model & Strategy
Foster America’s mission is to improve the lives of America’s most vulnerable children–those who have been abused, neglected, or orphaned–by building a pipeline of leaders and innovators who will help transform the child welfare system. In June 2016, Foster America launched a fellowship program that recruits, trains, and deploys talented professionals with diverse skills and backgrounds into the child welfare system. Drawing inspiration from other successful fellowship models like Teach For America and The Broad Residency, Foster America seeks to effect change within a bureaucratic system from the inside out by placing successful post-graduate and mid-career professionals to work under change-minded government and nonprofit agency leaders, catalyzing short-term improvements and long-term transformation.
Foster America’s fellows will focus on a previously-identified problem that affects children in foster care, leveraging their prior professional experience, skills, and outside-the-box thinking to achieve results against a defined set of metrics. Each fellow works on a project, leading and innovating to: 1) prevent abuse and neglect, keeping more children safely out of foster care; 2) see that children who do enter foster care can live with loving, stable foster families rather than in group settings; 3) ensure that every child in foster care has quality, consistent support from a highly-capable caseworker; and 4) that children have health, mental health, safety, and educational success as the multiple systems in their life work together for their well-being.
Long term, the organization’s goal is to develop and scale new solutions to the biggest challenges facing the child welfare system and build a cadre of talented leaders who will continue to work on improving our country’s child welfare system.



Founder and CEO Sherry Lachman has devoted her career to improving government systems to help disadvantaged children and families. She previously served as a domestic policy advisor to Vice President Biden, a senior policy advisor at the Department of Education, a senior education counsel to Senator Al Franken, and an attorney at the Juvenile Law Center. Sherry holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s in philosophy from the University of Cambridge, a doctor of law from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Sherry’s commitment to child welfare stems from her experience in foster care as a child.
IMPACT
Foster America fellows have made major progress on the ground. For example, one fellow used his marketing and design skills to help Rhode Island increase by 25 percent the number of foster families they recruited and licensed and thereby decrease by 30 percent the number of foster children they placed in jail-like institutions. Another fellow is using his software engineering skills to help Washington State integrate data across its early childhood and child welfare agencies to identify and match vulnerable families earlier with services that prevent child abuse and neglect.
By 2022, FA aims to scale the innovations their fellows and alumni create and develop at least 100 new leaders for the child welfare field from their fellowship pipeline. Together, they will represent enough of a critical mass in a relatively small sector, to begin shifting our country’s broken approach to child welfare, which is at the root of so many of society’s biggest challenges.
Foster America News
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Come check out our virtual booth @NPL_Alliance’s #ELEVATE2021 conference! Looking forward to having some great conv… https://t.co/9AZv9sAaV0
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Apply by March 5 to join our newest cohort of innovative fellows! We have roles in California, Colorado, Oklahoma a… https://t.co/C7z5hewmXD
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Just 3 weeks left to apply to be part of our next cohort of fellows! We have open roles in CA, CO, WA, and OK. Visi… https://t.co/uXYoTo8ckF
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All children should feel included when learning about #BlackHistoryMonth. The Care Parent Network, a family support… https://t.co/Il8xvSRNf9
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"Our nation has historically devalued families of color." Understanding and addressing the racist roots of the chil… https://t.co/UQAv807p2D
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We are so excited to place a visionary strategist fellow in #Denver! Applications are due March 5. Click the link i… https://t.co/CggcTkWfjW
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Tonight! Our info session will give an overview of the 18-month fellowship program & answer questions at 5 pm PT/8… https://t.co/oonKRRVaS4
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Happening tomorrow! We will be hosting another Webinar Information Session for our fellowship program tmrw at 5 pm… https://t.co/xaQATLf2rC
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We held our first Fellows Convening of the year in January. Read more about what foster care alumni had to say to o… https://t.co/KiZoeqgXaT
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Black history is American history. The child welfare system has a history of harming and traumatizing Black childre… https://t.co/eJEz4HUM3l
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Do you work in product management, data ops or strategy? We're hiring a fellow in Santa Clara County who will help… https://t.co/jzTk4u2HKT
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In partnership w/ @tippingpoint & @SCCOE, we seek a data operations, product manager, or data-savvy strategist to a… https://t.co/lYdVrqQFLB
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RT @TheImprintNews: Sherry Lachman, who spent time in #fostercare and founded @foster_america, will lead on education and family income pol…
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Our founding Executive Director Sherry Lachman has been appointed to a senior role in the @WhiteHouse Office of Man… https://t.co/3QS3tDGGOB
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In partnership w/ @tippingpoint & @CoCoSchools we seek a program designer, coalition builder, &/or organizational m… https://t.co/W89EohgMzc
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In partnership w/ the @waDCYF, we seek an equity-driven service designer and/or behavior change expert to guide the… https://t.co/flU0HgK1za
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RT @purposehustle: Excited for today’s #fostercare alumni panel to kick off our national @foster_america cohort 4 and 5 convening! Thank…
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Join us for a Webinar Information Session! These sessions are a great way to learn more about the fellowship, the a… https://t.co/V0ZZVC0cXg
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Our fellowship in partnership with @tippingpoint and Alameda Social Services Agency seeks an equity-driven systems… https://t.co/eXIpChJ5SP