Michele Powell is the Chief Programs Officer of Families Forward Virginia and serves on its senior management team. Families Forward Virginia, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is Virginia’s leading organization dedicated to disrupting the cycles of child abuse, neglect and poverty. Michele’s role and responsibilities include managing four state-level teams that provide support to 57 affiliates who work with parents and their children through home visiting programs, family support and education, child sexual abuse prevention programs and the new line of business, family resource centers.
Before becoming the Chief Programs Officer in March 2018, Michele served as the Healthy Families Virginia State Director at Families Forward Virginia where she managed the technical assistance and quality assurance team and co-led efforts to develop a new case management system for Virginia’s multi-site network.
Prior to her work at Families Forward Virginia, Michele was the Healthy Families Rappahannock Area Director for 13 years, and responsible for program management and operations, model fidelity, budget development and fundraising, advocacy and board recruitment and development. During her time there she was able to grow the program from $280K with a team of four to a $1M program with staff of thirteen members.
Michele earned a Bachelor of Arts from Howard University and has worked in the human service field for 28 years.
When she’s not working on behalf of families and their children Michele enjoys laughing, spending time with her family, planning beach trips, trying out new vegan dishes and making lists. She hasn’t met a Post-It Note she hasn’t liked yet.