Jere Wrightsman Director, Foster/Adoptive Parent Training Project

The director of the New York State Child Welfare Institute’s Foster/Adoptive Parent Training Program since 1995, Jere Wrightsman is responsible for overseeing the statewide delivery of a wide array of courses that prepare foster and/or adoptive parents to care for children, as well as for several regional seminars and conferences each year. He also supervises 8 GPS/MAPP trainers located around the state and continues to deliver training, including training of trainers. In addition, he serves as the administrator of the CDHS Albany Regional Office, a state-of-the-art training facility that serves Capital District trainees and guests.

Jere, who earned his M.S.W. at San Francisco State University, worked previously for a refugee resettlement program in Virginia, as a mental health therapist in the Adirondacks, and in a program for developmentally disabled adults and children in California. He joined CDHS in 1989 as a child welfare trainer and delivered a variety of courses before assuming the directorship, including Permanency Planning Core, Family Systems, Working with Alcohol- and Substance-Abusing Parents, and Cultural Diversity. He later played an instrumental part in the development of the Levels I and II COMPASS In-Service Training Program for Foster/Adoptive Parents, a skills-based curriculum for New York State certified caregivers. Over the course of career with the Center he has delivered numerous papers and workshops at both the national and state levels and has spoken on popular topics such as Humor and Foster Parenting, Foster Fatherhood, and Supporting Emotional Security and Attachment.