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Our Team

Colorado Division of Child Support Services

Heather Rego

Grant Administrator, Colorado Division of Child Support Services,

Heather Rego, Grant Administrator, Colorado Division of Child Support Services,

Heather Rego, BA, is the Marketing and Communications Lead for the Colorado Division of Child Support Services. Ms. Rego serves as the Interim SAVES Center Project Manager. She has over 10 years of child support program experience at both the state and county level. Her background ranges from family engagement, process improvement, and financial services, to grant/project management, policy development, and communications. Ms. Rego believes that the key to success with any project is to always keep the customer/family at the center point of focus.

Battered Women's Justice Project (BWJP)

Anadelle M. Martinez-Mullen

Director of the National Legal Center on Children and Domestic Violence at BWJP

Jillian Young

Director, SAVES National Clearinghouse

Esther Aparicio

Attorney Advisor, SAVES National Clearinghouse

Avery-Grace Blanco

Project Assistant, SAVES National Clearinghouse

Anadelle M. Martinez-Mullen, Director of the National Legal Center on Children and Domestic Violence at BWJP

Anadelle M. Martinez-Mullen, JD, Esq., is the Director of the National Legal Center on Children and Domestic Violence at BWJP. Ana has held direct services and management roles in the gender-based violence field for over 20 years. Ana began her work to educate, empower and promote change as a victim advocate and later, upon graduating law school and her admission to the Florida Bar she went into the private practice of family law representing clients in dissolution of marriage actions, custody, paternity cases, and Title IV-D Child Support actions. She also served as an Adjunct Professor teaching Domestic Violence Law and Mediation. Ana is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator. Prior to joining BWJP, she was Senior Attorney for the Injunction for Protection Project at Hubbard House, Inc., where she represented survivors in civil protection order actions.

Jillian Young, Director, SAVES National Clearinghouse

Jillian Young received her BA and MSW from the University of Wisconsin. She has spent over a decade supporting victim-survivors of domestic violence and leading system change within the legal and child welfare system. During her time as the Legal Program Coordinator for Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS) in Madison, WI, she led efforts to bring training on domestic violence and lethality risk factors to the Dane County Circuit Court judges. She chaired the Legal Issues Subcommittee to the Dane County Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence and piloted a court watch program for restraining order hearings. With the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, she led initiatives to build services for youth impacted by human trafficking and served as the Wisconsin Adoption Manager, providing contract administration to the State Public Adoptions program. She has extensive experience in project management, policy and program analysis, curriculum design, and providing technical assistance and training. During her free time she enjoys spending time with her family on their small farm.

Esther Aparicio, Attorney Advisor, SAVES National Clearinghouse

Esther is passionate about advocacy for survivors of domestic violence. Prior to joining BWJP, Esther worked for Northeast New Jersey Legal services providing legal representation in all areas of family law. More recently, Esther served as a Senior Staff Attorney at Partners, representing survivors of domestic violence in final restraining order trials, custody and parenting time hearings, and child support matters. When Esther is not working, she enjoys practicing Jiu-Jitsu and reading a good book with her daughter!

Avery-Grace Blanco, Project Assistant, SAVES National Clearinghouse

Avery-Grace Blanco has been working with survivors and their families for nine years, since she was a senior in high school. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in three years from the Metropolitan State University of Denver and took graduate level coursework focused on human rights and social justice at Arizona State University. She has worked for nonprofits, local and state governments, law firms, and independently to enact systemic change. In 2022 she was awarded a challenge coin from 20th chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff former General Mark Milley and in 2023 her dedication to her work was recognized by 46th U.S. President Joseph Biden.

Center for Policy Research (CPR)

Lanae Davis

Senior Research Associate

Jacqueline Whearty

Research Associate

Betty Tegegne

Research Associate

Rachel Wildfeuer

Research Analyst
Destinee Starcher

Destinee Starcher

Research Analyst

Lanae Davis, Senior Research Associate

Lanae Davis, MPA, is a Senior Research Associate at CPR. Ms. Davis co-leads the Research and Evaluation task and is a Training and Technical Assistance Specialist for the SAVES Center. She has 25 years of experience as a senior researcher and has extensive experience designing research projects from cross-site randomized controlled trials to process and outcomes studies. Ms. Davis has worked on dozens of 1115 demonstration projects across multiple states, including the Behavioral Interventions for Child Support Services (BICS) and the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED) projects, and has coordinated data collection in large-scale multi-site projects, analyzed administrative data drawn from child support systems and provided training and technical assistance. Ms. Davis served as the principal investigator on the CDC-funded DELTA grant awarded to the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, designing and conducting three distinct sexual violence prevention evaluations, was the lead researcher on Colorado’s Domestic Violence Program evaluation.

Jacqueline Whearty, Research Associate

Jacqueline (Jacque) Whearty, PhD, is a Research Associate with the Center for Policy Research (CPR) and serves as both a Research Specialist and Training and Technical Assistance Specialist for the SAVES Center. At CPR, she designs and conducts research projects related to child support, father engagement, economic mobility, and domestic violence prevention. Dr. Whearty has nearly 10 years of experience conducting policy-relevant research on the intersections between economic supports for single parents, coparenting, and child wellbeing. Her work has been published in peer reviewed journals, such as Family Relations and the Journal of Child and Family Studies.

Betty Tegegne, Research Associate

Betty Tegegne, MSc, is a Research Associate at the Center for Policy Research. Ms. Tegegne serves as a Research and Evaluation Specialist and a Training and Technical Assistant Specialist for the SAVES Center. At CPR, she works on research projects related to domestic violence prevention, child welfare, child support, and economic mobility. Before joining CPR, Betty worked across various international development organizations in public health, child protection, gender-based violence, nutrition, and maternal and child health.

Rachel Wildfeuer, Research Analyst

Rachel Wildfeuer, PhD, is a Research Analyst at CPR. Dr. Wildfeuer serves as a Research Specialist and a Training and Technical Assistance Specialist for the SAVES Center. At CPR, she works to design and conduct research projects related to child support, child welfare, father engagement, and domestic violence prevention, including the CDC-funded DELTA grant awarded to the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. Dr. Wildfeuer worked on a study funded by FRPN on maltreatment attributed to fathers in the child welfare system and has co-authored a comprehensive compilation of fatherhood policy in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Destinee Starcher

Destinee Starcher, Research Analyst

Destinee Starcher, Ph.D., is a Research Analyst at the CPR. Dr. Starcher serves as a Research Specialist and a Training and Technical Assistance Specialist for the SAVES Center. At CPR, she works on projects related to domestic violence prevention, child support, father engagement, and economic mobility. Dr. Starcher also worked as part of a research team evaluating the effectiveness of the Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team (DVERT) program, a second responder intervention meant to reduce gender-based violence.

Centre for Public Impact (CPI)

Kandice Louis-Wilson

Program Director

Sam Watson

Senior Program Manager

Jonathan Freeman

Senior Associate

Athena Hughes

Senior Associate

Kandice Louis-Wilson, Program Director

Kandice Louis-Wilson is a Program Director at the Centre for Public Impact, where she provides strategic oversight of CPI’s national work in the SAVES Center, partnering with states and tribal nations to strengthen safety and access to child support for survivors of violence. With over 15 years of experience and a B.S. in Engineering Psychology, she has led national, multi-year initiatives across child welfare, foster care, and youth transitions, and brings deep expertise in policy design, behavioral health integration, and system reform to improve outcomes for vulnerable communities. She has also managed federally funded projects and supported cross-sector collaboration through training, facilitation, and long-term technical assistance to government and nonprofit partners.

Sam Watson, Senior Program Manager

Sam Watson is a macro social worker and Senior Program Manager at the Centre for Public Impact (CPI), where she leads CPI’s team of Senior Associates within the SAVES Center. She spearheads CPI’s collaboration with content experts, state agencies, and tribal nations to strengthen safety and access to child support for survivors of domestic violence. With over a decade of experience, Sam has worked to advance collective well-being through gender-based violence prevention and response, crisis counseling, and cross-sector collaboration – all through an intersectional lens applied across local, state, and national efforts. She holds a Master of Social Work from UNC-Chapel Hill and a B.A. in Sociology from Siena College.

Jonathan Freeman, Senior Associate

Dr. Jonathan Freeman is a Senior Associate at the Centre for Public Impact, where he co-leads The Safe Access for Victims’ Economic Security (SAVES) program. With expertise in postsecondary pathways and finance initiatives, Jonathan works to transform government-community relationships and improve trauma-informed service delivery for child support staff. Jonathan brings extensive experience in collaborative leadership and cross-sector partnerships, having previously managed national programs at Girls Who Code, IBM’s P-TECH program, and NPower. His work spans K-12 through postsecondary education, with a focus on creating equitable outcomes for underserved students. At SAVES, he partners with domestic violence advocates, legal providers, and state childcare agencies to strengthen domestic survivor access to child support and public benefits. Jonathan holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Purdue University, an M.A. in African American Studies from UCLA, and a B.A. in History from Lane College.

Athena Hughes, Senior Associate

Athena Hughes is a Senior Associate at the Centre for Public Impact, where she supports program delivery for the SAVES Center and the Bloomberg-Harvard City Leadership Initiative Innovation Track. Prior to joining CPI, Athena worked in multiple capacities including outreach and communications, client advocacy, legal advocacy, and resource coordination at shelters for women experiencing domestic violence and homelessness around the United States. Her work in direct care drove an interest in updating systems to prioritize the experience and needs of the people using them. In this vein, her graduate work focused on developing a public advocacy platform for a child and family services agency. She holds an M.A. in Public Service from Marquette University and a B.A. in English and Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame.

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