First Focus Vice President Shadi Houshyar has left the 11-year-old advocacy group and will join the staff of the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) on March 7.
“Working with all of you in my time at First Focus has been a pleasure,” Houshyar wrote in a note to colleagues last week. “Thank you for all your leadership, commitment and collaborations in ensuring better outcomes for children and families.”
Shadi Houshyar. Photo courtesy of Washington DC Headshots.
Houshyar will join the Young Children and Families Team at CSSP. Youth Services Insider hit her up by email to see what the new job entails. She said her first focus (hahahah) will be CSSP’s new project, Early Childhood-LINC (a Learning and Innovation Network for Communities).
From Houshyar:
“This project builds on CSSP’s current work on community approaches to the full and healthy development of young children, and focuses particularly on the way in which toxic stress can be a barrier to a child’s development. Part of my work will involve testing a linked set of pediatric-based interventions to address toxic stress and promote healthy child development, and aligning the interventions into a more seamless pathway of services and opportunities for families at the local level.”
Houshyar, who led child welfare policy for First Focus, was one of its first employees. The organization, led by President Bruce Lesley, was founded in 2005.
