Lena, Stephanie, and Cassie joined us in December and have a wealth of knowledge and experience to offer in the field of Implementation Science and beyond. They will be working on FPG's Build Up Project. The Build Up project began as a partnership with the Behavioral Health Springboard (UNC School of Social Work), DHHS’s Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Substance Abuse Services – and Division of Child and Family Well-Being. Read more about each of them below!

Lena Harris is an implementation specialist with The Impact Center at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.  Lena has been a strong advocate for children and youth in foster care for several years. Prior to joining the Impact Center at FPG, she worked as an implementation specialist with Fostering Health NC, a program of the North Carolina Pediatric Society where she collaborated with multiple state, county, and community stakeholders to advocate for medical home care for children and youth in foster care. She also has direct practice experience working with children, youth, and families through her time as an in-home and foster care social worker with Orange County Department of Social Services. Lena earned her Master of Social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as a member of the Child Welfare Education Collaborative. She graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Lena is passionate about empowering children and families to achieve improved wellbeing outcomes, with a focus on those involved with the child welfare system and the systems that interact with it.

Stephanie Cattlet, M.Ed is a Project Manager for the CBHLT within the Impact Center. She has a Bachelor’s in Birth to Kindergarten Education and a Masters of Education in Leadership, Policy and Advocacy. She’s worked at the Chatham County Partnership coordinating the NC PreK program and as a Research Assistant on the Preschool Writing Project here at UNC which brought an early literacy intervention program to local Head Starts.

Cassie Koester, MSW, LCSW, is an implementation specialist with the Impact Center at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. She is a licensed clinical social worker and has served in a number of roles within behavioral health and educational systems to provide preventative and direct intervention therapy services to foster healthy outcomes for adults, children, and families. She has also previously worked as a site-based coach to provide implementation support for school-based MTSS/PBIS systems for successful student outcomes. Cassie graduated with her Master of Social Work from the University of South Florida and completed her clinical internship with PACE Center for Girls, where she delivered evidence-based therapeutic interventions within a trauma-informed gender-responsive treatment framework. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Purdue University.