About Us: Staff

Sandra Reeves Spears and John B. Turner Distinguished Professor, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work
Co-Director, Fostering Results
Child Welfare Consultant, Fostering Court Improvement

Mark Testa is the first Sandra Reeves Spears and John B. Turner Distinguished Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Social Work. Prior to that, he was Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and Director of the Children and Family Research Center. He formerly served as Research Director for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), where his research was instrumental in policy innovations leading to better services for children and families. Professor Testa has been recognized nationally and locally for his work in child welfare, including the Adoption 2002 Excellence Award for Applied Scholarship and Research on kinship care and permanence; 2005 Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and; 2004 Blue Bow Award for research and leadership to improve the systems of care for children, Children's Home and Aid Society. In 2006, he was nominated by Senator Dick Durbin and named an Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. He recently completed a book, Fostering Accountability (Oxford University Press), with John Poertner on the reform experiences in Illinois.

Founder & Advisory Board Chair, Barton Child Law & Policy Center
Statistician, Fostering Court Improvement

Andy and his wife Michelle Barclay, in partnership with Emory's School of Law, founded and endowed the Barton Center to advocate for research-based policy and to encourage students from all disciplines into public-interest career paths.

Andy works as a full-time volunteer technical consultant, providing technological and statistical support to Georgia non-profit and governmental agencies. He has worked in computing for over forty years, in both the for-profit and the public sectors. He has expertise in hardware and software engineering, high performance computing, digital signal processing, database design, data analysis, statistics, and public health. Andy retired from for-profit work in information technology in the late 1990s, and now spends nearly all of his time as a volunteer. Andy served for four years as the Chief Justice's appointee to the board of the Georgia Technology Authority and twelve years on the board of Georgia's Governor's Office for Children and Families.

Andy holds masters degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering from Stanford University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Senior Director of Strategic Consulting, Casey Family Programs
Judicial Consultant, Fostering Court Improvement

Christopher is a Senior Director for Strategic Consulting at Casey Family Programs, the nation's largest private operating foundation focused on safely reducing the need for foster care and building Communities of Hope. In his role, Christopher oversees Casey Family Programs' partnerships and investments in Maryland and Delaware and supports special projects in a number of other states.

Christopher is also an Academic Affiliate and Pro Bono Attorney with the CHAMPS Clinic at the University of South Carolina School of Law, a pediatric medical-legal partnership. CHAMPS partners with the local children’s hospital to provide civil legal aid that addresses the social determinants of health. Prior to joining Casey, Christopher was the Staff Attorney at CHAMPS, and served as a consultant to a number of child welfare organizations such as Casey Family Programs, the Children's Bureau's Capacity Building Center for Courts, the ABA Center on Children and the Law, the National Center for State Courts, and NCJFCJ. His consulting focused primarily on the use of administrative data to identify opportunities for child welfare system improvement. He began his career working for Georgia's Court Improvement Program.

Christopher holds a Masters in Mathematics from the University of North Texas and a Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University School of Law. He completed his undergraduate studies at Concordia College in New York. He is licensed to practice law in Georgia and South Carolina, and is South Carolina's first Child Welfare Law Specialist, a specialization certified by the National Association of Counsel for Children.