Marilyn M. English, MS, is the Founder and CEO of the African American Wellness Center for Children & Families (AAWCCF), a community-based nonprofit dedicated to advancing the health, safety, stability, and empowerment of Black children and families. With more than 20 years of experience in child welfare, juvenile justice, family preservation, kinship care, behavioral health, and community advocacy, Marilyn is a respected leader in the movement to reform the child welfare system and eliminate racial disparities affecting African American children and families. Throughout her career, Marilyn has challenged policies and practices that unnecessarily separate children from their families and communities. She has worked to shift child welfare from a crisis-driven, investigative system toward a community-centered model grounded in prevention, family preservation, kinship care, cultural responsiveness, and shared accountability. Marilyn has advocated for the California Department of Social Services to examine and reform mandated-reporting policies and practices. Her work emphasizes the need to distinguish poverty and unmet family needs from abuse or neglect, reduce unnecessary reports to child protective services, address racial bias in reporting, and create pathways that connect families to voluntary community support before a crisis results in system involvement. Recognizing the importance of preserving family relationships, Marilyn helped design and establish San Diego County’s Kinship Support Services Program. The program strengthened support for grandparents, relatives, and extended-family caregivers raising children who might otherwise enter or remain in foster care. Her leadership helped ensure that kinship caregivers received advocacy, education, resource navigation, and culturally responsive assistance necessary to maintain safe and stable homes. Marilyn also restructured San Diego County’s Cultural Broker Program to improve engagement between African American families and the child welfare system. The redesigned approach elevated community voice, strengthened communication between families and professionals, helped parents understand and navigate complex systems, and promoted more equitable decision-making. This work contributed to a broader effort to reduce the disproportionate representation of Black children in foster care and prevent unnecessary family separation. In addition, Marilyn participated in the design and implementation of a restorative justice–based Foster Family Agency program in San Diego County. The program incorporated accountability, relationship-building, healing, family engagement, and community connection into services for children, parents, and caregivers. Her contributions helped demonstrate how restorative practices can be integrated into foster care and family-support systems to address harm while preserving dignity and strengthening relationships. Marilyn has developed and led culturally responsive parenting programs, family advocacy services, health-equity initiatives, behavioral-health outreach, youth programs, and community education efforts. She has trained parents, professionals, service providers, and community leaders in cultural responsiveness, racial equity, family engagement, mandated reporting, child welfare practices, and community-defined solutions. Under her leadership, AAWCCF provides empowerment case management, parenting education, educational advocacy, mental and behavioral health connections, hygiene and wellness kits, food assistance, youth development, and support with housing and public benefits. These services address the underlying conditions that may place families at risk of involvement with child welfare, juvenile justice, school discipline, and other public systems. Marilyn has also served as a Citizen Review Panel appointee, a Foster Family Agency administrator, and a trusted community partner working across government, nonprofit, education, healthcare, and grassroots organizations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science, and a Master of Science in Human Service Administration. Marilyn’s leadership is driven by a clear vision: children should remain safely connected to their families, culture, and communities whenever possible. Her work continues to transform systems, strengthen families, elevate community expertise, and create a future in which Black children and families are not merely surviving—but are supported, respected, and positioned to thrive.