Susan Badeau

Susan Badeau has been a child welfare professional for twenty-six years. Currently a policy consultant, from 2002 – 2005 Ms. Badeau served as the Deputy Director of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care. She has also worked in direct services at both the casework and supervisory levels in adoption and foster care in both public and private agencies. She has developed curricula on many topics used to prepare professional child welfare staff, adoptive and foster parents, judges, attorneys and youth. She also writes extensively on topics related to children, particularly those with special needs. A lifelong child advocate, she completed a one-year Kennedy Public Policy Fellow in the office of Senator John D (Jay) Rockefeller IV in Washington DC where she had the opportunity to work on policies that impact on the lives of children and families. Sue is also a frequent speaker at state, regional and national conferences.

Sue and her husband, Hector, are the lifetime parents of twenty-two children, two by birth and twenty adopted. They have also served as foster parents for more than 50 children in three states, and as a host family for refugee youth from Sudan, Kosovo and Guatemala. This summer, their 28th grandchild was born. They have won numerous awards for their work, including being recognized by President Clinton with an “Adoption Excellence” award for their work on behalf of adoption and children in foster care in 1997.

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