Sandra Gasca-Gonzalez is the vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Center for Systems Innovation which entails overseeing national and state reform efforts in three key areas: child welfare, young people transitioning into adulthood, and juvenile justice. Prior to assuming this role in 2018, Sandra served as the director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, which aims to equip young people leaving foster care with the relationships, resources and opportunities needed to achieve well-being and success as they transition into adulthood. As the director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Jim Casey Initiative, Sandra led national, state, and local efforts to improve policies and practices to ensure young people have the opportunity to successfully transition from foster care to adulthood. She is known for her fearlessness in tackling deep-rooted challenges and her willingness to go into diverse communities to increase engagement in a way that benefits children and families.

Sandra became director of the Jim Casey Initiative in April 2015 after serving as executive vice president of Practice and Leadership Integration for KVC Health Systems, where she led nationally recognized initiatives to transform child welfare systems with clinical best practices, change management skills and results-based measurement.

Before that, she was on assignment from KVC to one of the most embattled public child welfare systems in the U.S. — the Washington, D.C., Child, and Family Services Agency — where she helped implement best practices and championed a culture shift. This work led to better outcomes for D.C. children and families, including sharp reductions in the length of stay in foster care and dramatic increases in the number of children being placed with families. Additionally, Sandra has served as president of KVC Nebraska and KVC’s executive vice president (motherHope), where she led the implementation of child welfare system transformation in the central area of Kansas.

Sandra is also passionate about the area of human trafficking of young people in foster care and advancing efforts to identify and combat child welfare practice. As an alumna of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Children and Family Fellowship, Sandra is also a graduate of the National Hispanic Leadership Institute and received by business journals in two states as a “40 Under 40” leader. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Emporia State University.