Meet Our Team

Lisa Gitelson, Chief Executive Officer

Throughout Lisa’s career in public service, as an attorney and child welfare advocate, she has been dedicated to addressing the needs of underserved youth.  Prior to joining The Fund, she was Assistant Executive Director/Legal Counsel for The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC). She is also an Adjunct Professor at Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, CUNY, where she teaches the Policy & Practice of Child Welfare. 

As Assistant Executive Director/Legal Counsel for NYSPCC, Lisa identified legislation and other public policy issues that impacted the organization’s work and developed an advocacy agenda to move public policy efforts forward.  Previously, she served as Associate Executive Director, Downstate, at the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies (COFCCA) where she was responsible for bringing private foster care, juvenile justice, residential care and prevention services agencies together to coordinate advocacy efforts for the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. In this role, Lisa represented COFCCA member agencies in discussions with the Administration for Children’s Services, the New York City Council and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.   

Prior to COFCCA, Lisa was the Director of Foster Care and Adoption Services at Sheltering Arms Children and Family Services. She began her career as an attorney representing foster care agencies before serving in multiple leadership and supervisory roles at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, Family Court Legal Services. Lisa is a graduate of Colgate University and has a JD from Washington University School of Law.