Whitney Barbusca lives in Lancaster County and works for Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Healthy Beginnings Plus program as a social worker. She has worked as a social worker in the Maternal and Child Health field for 23 years. She is also a current member of the Lancaster County Healthy Mothers Healthy Baby Coalition. As a new member, Whitney looks forward to the collaboration with other members in advocating for positive improvements in child welfare services and practices. She hopes to add value of her experience to the panel to strengthen community support for the safety of children.
South Central Panel
I am a practicing pediatrician and adult internal medicine physician in Lebanon County for over 20 years, and am currently with Penn State Hershey Medical Center. I have been involved with a program called Child Death Review, whose mission is to understand why children die and what can be done to prevent these deaths. Through these roles, I understand that child abuse and neglect is a serious and underreported issue and want to do all I can to help our children grow into healthy adults.
Lynn Carson works in Dauphin (primary office location), Lebanon, and Cumberland Counties as the Director of UPMC Pinnacle Children's Resource Center (CRC). Prior to directing the CRC, Lynn held several positions at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR). At PCAR, she was the Judicial Project Specialist working with and training judges on victim dynamics, before moving into the position of Director of Grants and Contracts where she oversaw the grants distributed to the 50 Rape Crisis Centers across PA. Lynn also ensured the Centers complied with guidelines established by PCAR and other grant funders. As a panel member, Lynn looks forward to learning about the child protective efforts in Pennsylvania and using her experience to influence and improve gaps in current practice.
Kait Gillis-Hanna lives in Cumberland County. Kait’s role as a resource parent brought her to the Citizen Review Panel, but her interest began years ago when she served as the communications director for the PA Department of Human Services. Serving our youth at a difficult moment in their lives is critical and Kait takes these responsibilities very seriously. As a new panel member, Kait looks forward to learning the ins and outs of our system, while working with others to bring about fresh ideas on how to improve upon the current efforts.
Wendy Hoverter lives in Cumberland County. She served in the Children and Youth Services for approximately 45 years as an intern, caseworker, supervisor and administrator. During this time, Wendy worked in Cumberland, York and Lancaster counties as well as the Central Regional Office of the Office of Children, Youth, and Families. Wendy retired from Cumberland County in 2015. Since that time, she has continued to train new caseworkers as a contracted instructor for Child Welfare Resource Center.
Lisa lives in York County, where she is the parent of 4 adult children and a grandmother of 4. Lisa is a very involved parent with her children, grand-children and the community. She has spent the last the 20 plus years not only watching her children matriculate through life but continued to grow herself by learning, exploring, and sharing with others through experiences she has had along the way. Lisa loves watching others achieve their greatness through the collective work of all of us.
Kurt Miller lives in Lancaster County where he works as a BSW Program Director at Lancaster Bible College (2012 to present). Previously, he worked at Lancaster County CYA as a caseworker, supervisor, and director (1991 to 2012. Additionally, he has served as a trainer at the CWRC (2000 to present). Working in the child welfare field for over 20 years, Kurt has experienced many exciting and wonderful learning opportunities engaging with clients, co-workers, and the community. Being a trainer, he has seen many caseworkers and supervisors enter the field and has the benefit of participating in their learning journey. As a panel member, he desires to give back to the bigger picture of child welfare in the State of Pennsylvania.
Robin Nickel lives in Dauphin County and works in Cumberland County where she is Program Supervisor of In-Home Family Services at Pressley Ridge. Previously, she worked in San Francisco, CA, Oakland, CA and New York City Children and Youth Services, by providing child/family mental health treatment and services related to child abuse prevention, assessment and treatment. Robin has worked in these areas over 20 years as an LCSW. As a CRP member, Robin appreciates working to solidify collaborative services and comprehensive policies and areas of improved commitment to child welfare.
I currently work for Mifflin and Juniata Human Services as a Healthy Communities Coordinator. Our office serves both Mifflin and Juniata Counties. In this role I work closely with other human service agencies in our two counties to provide for the needs of community members. I also have a 4-year-old son who I adopted through private foster care. I have been through the foster care application and home study, termination of parental rights hearing and adoption hearing. This process has given me first hand experience in dealing with the foster care system.
