Hannah Burton, MSW, LISW, JD
She/Her/Hers
Biography
Child welfare policy reform, legal services for parents and relatives/kin in juvenile protection matters.
Twin Cities - Metro
Sarah Brunner, MSW, LICSW
She/Her/Hers
Biography
I work in Child Welfare as a Social Work Unit Supervisor in Ongoing Child Protection.
Address:
Hennepin County
300 South 6th St.
Minneapolis, MN 55487
Miranda Barker, LICSW, LCSW
She/Her/Hers
Biography
I’m a therapist who specializes in working with individuals going through life transitions (becoming parent, job changes, graduating college) and families touched by adoption, including birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees. I bring experience from both the clinical side and the child welfare world, and I love helping people of all ages feel seen and supported. I am an adoptive parent myself and with adoption in my family of origin.
Tiffany Bobendrier, MA, LPC
She/Her/Hers
Biography
Tiffany Bobendrier believes that humans are made to thrive in healthy relationships. With a focus on attachment, she sincerely desires that her clients feel safe, seen and secure while they take the courageous steps needed towards growth in their personal lives.
Kaysie Bergum, MSW, LICSW
She/Her/Hers
Biography
I have been working as an Adoption Resource Worker with HI have worked in the area of Permanency with Hennepin County since 2019. Currently, my title is Permanency Resource Worker (PRW) where I support children 0-18 who are in foster care. In this role, I help children achieve permanency by supporting paths toward a Transfer of Permanency Legal and Physical custody (TPLPC) or adoption when concurrent permanency planning is necessary. ennepin County since 2019.
Sarah Bello, MSW, LISW
Biography
Sarah Bello, MSW, LISW has been in the field of social work since 2009, drawn into the work through her own lived experience.
Melissa Batalden Mendez, MSW, LICSW
Biography
Melissa joined the University of Minnesota School of Social Work’s Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) in February 2013 as the Title IV-E Child Welfare Field Coordinator. In this role, she works directly with the IV-E MSW scholars who are focusing their studies and field experiences in child welfare practice, and with public and private agencies that provide child welfare services.
Christina Bast, MSW, LICSW
Biography
I believe that working with adoptees should include their whole family, as adoption is a whole-family experience. I practice from a strengths and systems theoretical perspective, and see relationships as the key to therapeutic progress.
Address:
Fraser
6458 City West Parkway
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Wendy L. Baker, MSW, LICSW
Biography
Wendy L. Baker, MSW, LICSW is co-founder of Family Circle Counseling, in St. Paul, MN. A family focused group practice with particular dedication to adoptive and foster care families and their unique and potentially intensive therapeutic needs. Wendy has over 40 years of therapeutic experience working with high needs children, teens, families and individuals of all ages with specialization in clinical work with trauma survivors who deal with issues surrounding childhood neglect, physical & sexual abuse and attachment traumas/disruptions.
Mike Arieta, MSW, LICSW, LCSW, LISW, PACC
He/Him/His
Biography
Currently, Michael is licensed in MN, AZ (LCSW), and Iowa (LISW), and is attending Tulane University and in the process of obtaining the Doctor of Social Work degree. Mike also works for the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus as a Financial Aid Counselor working primarily with at risk students who experience homelessness, foster care or adoption system involvement along with families who are going through crisis.
