Nominations & Voting
Child Life Council Board of Directors Elections
The CLC Board of Directors provides governance and oversight for CLC operations and initiatives. The role of each Board member is to act in the best interest of the organization as a whole and to exercise the legal and financial duties of stewardship. It is vital to the growth and success of the organization that strong and committed individuals are elected to leadership positions.
CLC follows a best practice approach to board elections, in which the Nominating Committee undertakes a formal process to review candidates and develop a final recommended slate to present to the membership. This slate of candidates includes one recommended individual for each available position.
For the 2016 election, the CLC Nominating Committee considered all candidates whose names were put forward during the nominations process. In order to be eligible for consideration, a candidate must be a Certified Child Life Specialist and a CLC member in good standing, with demonstrated leadership abilities and a history of active engagement in the organization and/or the child life profession. For more information about the skills and attributes of a desirable candidate for the Board of Directors, please refer to Board Position Information.
VOTE ONLINE IN THE 2016 CLC ELECTIONS
All members with voting privileges will receive an email on March 11 with a personalized link to the 2016 Election Ballot. If you do not receive your ballot, please contact membership@childlife.org. The polls will close on Friday, April 8 at 5 p.m. ET.
2016 Board of Directors Positions & Responsibilities
All Child Life Council Board of Directors candidates must accept certain responsibilities and possess key qualifications to be considered for a position on the Board. General information about all Board of Directors positions are outlined in detail at Board Positions. For the elections in 2016, there are five available positions: President-Elect, Secretary, two Director positions, and CLCC Chair-Elect.
Detailed position descriptions are available for review:
2016 BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION SLATE OF CANDIDATES
The Nominating Committee is pleased to recommend to the membership the slate of candidates for the positions of President-Elect, Treasurer, two Directors, and CLCC Chair-Elect. The profiles highlight the candidates' background and qualifications.
The following slate has been endorsed and is recommended by the Nominating Committee:
President-Elect
Eileen Clark, MSM, CCLS
Secretary
Anne Claire Hickman, MA, CCLS, LPS-Intern
Directors
Sara Barnett, MBA, CCLS Jessika Boles, MEd, CCLS
Child Life Certifying Committee Chair-Elect
Belinda "Bindy" Sweett, CCLS
President-Elect
Three-Year Commitment, One Year Each Position:
- President-Elect May 2016 - May 2017
- President May 2017 - May 2018
- Past President May 2018 - May 2019
Eileen Clark, MSM, CCLS
Eileen Clark has been a member of the Child Life Council since 1989. Her Council activities include serving as a member of the Corporate Advisory Council Task Force, Chair of the Leadership Development Committee and a current committee member of the Governance Committee Sub-Group working on policy review. Eileen served as a CLC Board Member, term: 2013-2015. She recently began consultation for the Child Life Council Program Review Service.
Eileen is the Family Services Manager at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin with oversight for the following programs: Child Life and Expressive Therapies, Spiritual Care, Bereavement, School Programming and Volunteer Services.
Prior to her leadership position Eileen worked as a child life specialist in oncology for 15 years. During her tenure as a CCLS she was instrumental in implementing special programming for grief and bereavement as well as young adult and sibling support groups that are still operational today.
Eileen’s passion for staff support was ignited through leading a Six Sigma Project incorporating a healthy and emotionally supportive work environment for staff caring for a child at end-of-life. Eileen also participated in a research role via the National Institute for Health within the palliative care program.
Secretary
Two-Year Committment: May 2016 - May 2018
Anne Claire Hickman, MA, CCLS, LPC-Intern
Anne Claire Hickman is the Psychosocial Supervisor at Children's Comprehensive Care in Austin, TX, an innovative grant-funded research clinic providing a medical home for children with medical complexity. She served as a member of the multi-disciplinary team who envisioned and developed this alternative approach to health care to improve outcomes for children within this population. Anne Claire supervises the psychosocial team including the child life specialist, child life assistant, family liaison, social workers and community health workers and oversees programs relating to family support services. Anne Claire is currently working on the program development of additional behavioral health services for families within the clinic and the community offering individual, couples, and family counseling as well as group interventions. Along with her role in management, Anne Claire is providing direct behavioral health services under her current therapy license. Prior to her current position, Anne Claire worked as a Child Life Specialist Senior at Dell Children’s Medical Center in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, with the Palliative Care Team and served as a member of the child life department leadership team.
Anne Claire is an active member of the Association for Child Life Professionals. She currently serves in a director position on the ACLP Board, has served on the planning committee for the Child Life Director’s Retreat and Networking Conference, and prior to her role on the board, served as chair of the Conference Program Committee. She has presented multiple times at the annual ACLP conference including two half day intensives. Other presentation events include being a co-creator for a poster for Pediatric Academic Societies, a presenter at a multi-state palliative care conference, and a presenter at the Texas Primary Care and Home Health Summit.
Back to 2016 Elections Slate
Director (two positions)
Two-Year Committment: May 2016 - May 2018
Sara Barnett, MBA, CCLS
Sara Barnett is the Manager of the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapies Department at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health. Being a Child Life Specialist reinforced the life lessons her parents instilled from a young age. Mom: “Listen to your body and know that your mind is a very powerful tool in overcoming challenges.” Dad: “Follow your passion, not your pension.” These lessons and many more have served her well over the thirty years Sara has enjoyed as a CCLS. A few years ago, Sara’s passion for serving hospitalized children was challenged by the many healthcare pressures to cut costs so she went back to school and obtained her MBA in Healthcare Management. This new knowledge provided balance and renewed hope for the future of the Child Life profession. Sara has served on various committees with the Child Life Council through the years. She has also been active in other organizations: Florida Association of Child Life Professionals, Boy Scouts of America, Vacation Bible School, School Advisory Committee, and Neighborhood Watch. Now that her two boys are grown, Sara enjoys spending time with her husband of thirty years out in their forest, on the pond with their two dogs or keeping their chickens out of the flower and vegetable gardens.
Jessika Boles, MEd., CCLS
Jessika began her child life career in 2009 at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee, where she worked as a child life specialist for adolescents and young adults in solid tumor oncology. After completing her undergraduate education at Rhodes College in Memphis, where she majored in Religious Studies, Jessika then earned her Master of Education degree in Applied Child Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Educational Psychology at The University of Memphis. Jessika’s dissertation research focuses on the ways in which young children with cancer construct an understanding of their diagnosis and treatment in the hospital setting; her previous research has explored the schooling experiences of children with cancer before and during treatment. Jessika has published her research in educational and qualitative research journals, and has presented on her work both at child life conferences and at regional, national, and international conferences in psychology and education. In addition to her clinical work and research, she teaches undergraduate courses in human development, early childhood development, and foundations of child life. Jessika’s volunteer work with the Child Life Council has included serving as a member of the Evidence-Based Practice Committee, volunteering for and co-chairing the Research and Scholarship Committee, and serving as a reviewer and currently the Executive Editor of Bulletin and Child Life Focus. She also writes as an invited columnist for Pediatric Nursing. Jessika has served as the chair of her hospital’s Evidence-Based Practice Committee, and has held other leadership positions at the University of Memphis and the American Psychological Association. She currently lives in Nashville where she is writing the final draft of her dissertation and teaching undergraduate child life courses for two universities.
Back to 2016 Elections Slate
Child Life Certifying Committee Chair-Elect
Four Year Commitment: May 2016 - May 2020 (initially elected as the Chair-Elect, serving for two years in that capacity before coming onto the Board as CLCC Senior Chair)
Belinda "Bindy" Sweett, CCLS
Retired from clinical practice, Bindy has continued to volunteer with the CLC, as she has done since becoming an item writer for the first CLCC Professional Exam. Bindy’s interest in certification and its ongoing development has not diminished after serving a previous term on the CLC board as certification chair. She has also participated in Exam Assembly and Practice Analysis, and currently serves as the CLCC Ethics and Appeals Coordinator. Although this is a complex role, and not always an easy one, Bindy is committed to maintaining the high standards that the Council and its membership have worked so hard to achieve, and to supporting certified members. She has volunteered with the Internship Task Force, Program Standards, and a variety of other CLC committees, and presently functions as an Internship Accreditation Reviewer. The CLC Conference on Professional Issues is one of Bindy’s favorite weeks of the year, and she continues to attend sessions and meet new child life specialists. As chair of the Awards Committee, she is especially excited about encouraging the development of psychosocial care abroad and the professional growth of our International Scholars, who also have much to offer the CLC.
Bindy is honored to serve with the CLC Board of Directors. Certification has been extraordinarily important to the recognition of training and expertise held by our members, while also functioning as a safeguard to the children and families we serve. As we continue our transition to a new level of standards, communication with members and attention to interwoven issues will require a great deal of effort and support; Bindy looks forward to being a part of this evolution.
Nominating Committee Members
Carla Oliver, MSW, CCLS - Committee Chair
Children's Hospital Colorado
Denver, CO
Kimberly Allen, MS, CCLS
Medical College of Georgia, Children's Medical Center
Augusta, Georgia
Bonnie Bishop, CCLS
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Columbus, OH
Elana Brewer, MS, CCLS
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA
Shawna Grissom, MS, CCLS, CEIM
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Memphis, TN
Jaime Holliman, DrPH, MA, CCLS
Vanderbilt Children's Hospital
Nashville, TN
Susan Marchant, MA, CCLS
Mills College
Oakland, CA
Meghaan Nguyen, MSW, CCLS
Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital
Houston, Texas
Jim Gandorf, CAE (Staff Liaison)
Child Life Council
Arlington, VA
Colleen Maguire (Staff Resource)
Child Life Council
Arlington, VA