Dr. Amelia is the Founder and Executive Officer of the national non-profit, Alia. Amelia and Team Alia are UnSysteming the child welfare system and shifting mindsets and practice to keep children safely with, not from, their families. Alia uses a community co-design approach: working alongside parents with lived expertise and innovative systems leaders as partners to co-create new solutions to old problems while supporting the wellbeing of leaders, teams, and caregivers. Amelia was named as one of People Magazine’s “25 Women Changing the World, was selected as an Ashoka Fellow--the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, a Bush Foundation Fellow--inspiring bigger and different thinking, was named a 50over50 Honoree—System Reformer in the Disruptor Category by Pollen Midwest, and has a widely viewed TEDx Talk on the Human Need for Belonging.

Amelia’s awards from her alma maters include: Alumni Achievement Award (Illinois State University); College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) Alumni Society Award of Excellence (University of Minnesota); Alumna of the Year Award School of Social Work (University of Minnesota); Emerging Leader by the College of Education and Human Development (University of Minnesota) for achieving “early distinction” in her career; andAlumni of the Year Department of Sociology (Illinois State University).

At Alia, Amelia works to convene changemakers and partners to advance the tools and knowledge base in the field of child welfare. Amelia has co-authored and led the publication of a Social Return on Investment Study: The Unseen Costs of Foster Care; a Research Brief: Evidence Base for Avoiding Family Separation in Child Welfare Practice; Creating a Permanence Driven Organization: A Guidebook for Change in Child Welfare; and multiple reports on learnings and outcomes from the 14-county Alia UnSystem Innovation Cohort. When no other tools existed, Amelia led the initiative to bring together academic, research and professional partners at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare to develop the Youth Connections Scale (YCS) and the Wellbeing Indicator Tool for Youth (WIT-Y), both nationally recognized, evidence-informed. Amelia is an author of many professional articles, reports, guidebooks, and co-authored the books Present Moment Parenting and The Healing Guidebook.

Amelia holds a doctorate degree in Organizational Change and Leadership (University of Southern California), a Masters' Degree in Sociology/Marriage and Family (Illinois State University), a Masters’ Degree in Social Work/Human Service Management, (University of Minnesota) and graduate certificates in Disability Policy and Services (University of Minnesota), Permanence and Adoption Competency (University of Minnesota), and American Sign Language Proficiency (University of Minnesota). Her doctoral dissertation is “What Public Child Welfare Leaders Need to Know and Do to Prevent Undesired Turnover and Promote a Culture of Wellbeing.” Amelia is a certified facilitator of Dr. Brené Brown’s work in shame-resilience and vulnerability.