Linda Hall, Executive Director

  Linda Hall brings to her role as Executive Director, nearly thirty years of public policy experience at the local, state and national levels.  Hall draws on that experience as she pursues WAFCA’s legislative, public policy and best practice agenda and supports member agencies through information, human services trends identification and technical assistance.

 Throughout her career, Hall has been an advocate for quality health care coverage and access, especially for low-income families.  She also has developed considerable expertise in mental health and child welfare program design and how public policy can support quality program administration.  More recently, she has focused on best practice in child welfare – what it is, how to support it and how measure it.

 Hall has written on the importance of integrating services for families and on family-led decisionmaking through Family Team Meetings.  She has advocated for better child welfare services through quality review that supports improved practice and engagement with families.  In addition to addressing quality review in her briefing papers, she participated on the team that modified the Quality Service Review protocol for use throughout Wisconsin.

 Before becoming Executive Director, Hall was WAFCA’s Associate Director and Social Work Inservice Program (SWIP) Coordinator.  The SWIP training program for member agencies’ therapists and social workers identifies leading edge practices in therapy and contracts with regional and national speakers to present theories and teach therapeutic skills.  She also served as director of Wisconsin’s Fostering Results initiative, which was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts in ten states to increase understanding of the role of the federal government in the protection of children at-risk of child abuse and neglect.  This two-year initiative was a collaboration between the Milwaukee Child Welfare Philanthropy Group, the Greater Milwaukee Federation, and WAFCA, which led to an enduring relationship between these organizations.

 Before joining WAFCA in 1994, Hall was a fiscal analyst for Wisconsin’s legislature responsible for examining the Medicaid budget, health care reform and other legislative proposals.  Hall’s experience also includes health policy analysis for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, various positions with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Chicago and Washington, DC, and director of the National Governors’ Association’s State Medicaid Information Center.  She earned her Masters in Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Masters of Arts in Theological Studies at McCormick Theological Seminary.

Kathy Markeland, Senior Policy Advocate

  Kathy Markeland joined the WAFCA staff in January 2007 bringing a diverse public policy background.  Prior to joining WAFCA, Kathy served as an associate director for the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, the public policy voice for Wisconsin’s Roman Catholic bishops.  In her eight years with the Conference, Kathy advocated on a wide range of issues from environmental matters to human concerns and health care policy.  In addition, she followed state developments related to welfare reform, services for the vulnerable and state and local finance.

  In her early career, Kathy spent seven years serving the Wisconsin Counties Association, providing both member support and public policy advocacy services to elected representatives on Wisconsin’s 72 county boards.  Her experience with the counties introduced her to a wide range of county services and programs and advanced her knowledge of state and local funding relationships.  Her policy focus included human services, nursing homes, county organization and environment and land use management.

  In her role as Senior Policy Advocate, Kathy tracks state and federal public policy trends, monitors state agency activities, implements WAFCA policy priorities, coordinates WAFCA initiatives, and organizes the Social Work Inservice Program (SWIP), which provides training for member agencies’ therapists and social workers on contemporary practice theories and therapeutic skills.

 She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Behavioral Science and Law in 1992 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

  Sharon Gust has been the Executive Assistant of WAFCA since July of 2000.  In addition to managing the office and working on special projects such as the salary survey, she coordinates the Social Work Inservice Program (SWIP) workshops, including contracting for speakers, hotel arrangements, and registrations.

  Prior to coming to WAFCA, Sharon worked for 13 years as a medical secretary, followed by 14 years at Telephone and Data Systems (now TDS Telecom), where she eventually became Product Manager, Directories.  She then chose to be a stay-at-home mom for the next five years—a decision she will never regret.  Once her daughter was well-established in school, Sharon went to work part time at Wisconsin PTA.  After three years there, she joined the WAFCA staff.