Nicole Barnes

Nicole serves as a Constituency Services Manager for the Capacity Building Center for States, overseeing a team and leading the budgeting, strategic planning and annual reporting for constituency services within the center. In this role, she applies an implementation framework to the challenge of child welfare, working to ultimately reduce adolescent health risk behaviors for child welfare populations. Nicole plays an active role in elevating the center’s approaches through participation in multiple workgroups and special projects.

The Capacity Building Center for States works to advance the Children's Bureau's vision for preventing child abuse and neglect and strengthening families who encounter the child welfare system. The work of the Center to build capacity relies on three critical service areas that are integrated and informed by a deep knowledge about what is working in child welfare and a commitment to supporting state child welfare agencies. The Center's goal is to build the capacity of child welfare agencies to prevent and mitigate the risks to adolescent health, and to improve outcomes for children youth and families in the child welfare system as a whole.