Staff Biographies

Shay Bilchik

Founder and Director

Shay Bilchik is the founder and Director of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. The Center purpose is to focus the nation public agency leaders, across systems of care and levels of government, on the key components of a strong juvenile justice reform agenda. This work is carried out through the dissemination of papers on key topics, the sponsorship of symposia, and a Certificate Program at Georgetown providing public agency leaders with opportunities for short, but intensive, periods of study.

Prior to joining the Institute on March 1, 2007, Mr. Bilchik was the President and CEO of the Child Welfare League of America, a position he held from February of 2000. Shay led CWLA in its advocacy on behalf of children through his public speaking, testimony and published articles, as well as collaborative work with other organizations. He worked closely with the CWLA Board of Directors, staff, and its public and private agency members on issues impacting the well-being of children and families. In 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006, he was named among The NonProfit Times Power and Influence Top 50 for making his mark in the public policy arena and championing child welfare issues.

Prior to his tenure at CWLA, Shay headed up the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he advocated for and supported a balanced and multi-systems approach to attacking juvenile crime. Before coming to the nation's capital, Mr. Bilchik was an Assistant State Attorney in Miami, Florida from 1977-1993, where he served as a trial lawyer, juvenile division chief, and Chief Assistant State Attorney.

Mr. Bilchik earned his B.S. and J.D. degrees from the University of Florida. He and his wife Susan are the proud parents of two young adults, Melissa and Zach.

                                    (See Bilchik discuss why he works in juvenile justice)

Arlene F. Lee

Deputy Director

Arlene F. Lee is the Deputy Director for the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform where she will continue her work of helping policy makers and agencies develop research informed inter and intra system approaches to improving outcomes for children and youth. Prior to joining CJJR she was the Executive Director of the Governor's Office for Children, appointed by Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., where she chaired the Children's Cabinet to coordinate child and family-oriented care within the State's Child-Serving Agencies and with local community collaboratives. During her tenure she led the development of the first three-year children's plan in Maryland establishing goals and strategies for the delivery of integrated services to children and families. As a result of this work she was named one of Maryland's Top 100 Women in 2007.

Arlene graduated from American University's Washington College School of Law in 1987. Her career in children's issues began by working in an adolescent group home and teaching street law to District of Columbia youth confined in juvenile justice facilities. As an attorney with the Legal Aid Bureau, she focused her practice on the representation of children in the child welfare system. Later, in a firm she founded, she represented children in delinquency, child welfare and divorce/custody matters. After years of working with systems that lacked resources, she became the founding member and Executive Director of a Local Management Board, designed to re-structure services for children and families. Based upon her experiences with developing and coordinating local services she joined the Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention as the Youth Strategies Manager, addressing the reduction and prevention of juvenile delinquency and adolescent substance abuse through empowerment of local communities. Her work on youth and public safety issues led her to become the Director of the Federal Resource Center for Children of Prisoners at the Child Welfare League, where she focused on the coordination of policies, programs and services across the fields of human services and criminal justice.

As a result of these experiences Arlene has developed a deep commitment to issues related to the needs of children and a desire to ensure that all children receive the services and supports necessary to be fully prepared for a successful future.

Macon Bowden

Program Manager

Macon Bowden is the Program Manager for the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR) at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. Prior to joining CJJR, Ms. Bowden moved up the ranks within the District of Columbia Government’s Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) during her 5.5 year tenure. Her work included providing direct case management services to the children and families of the nations capital as a Social Worker, conducting internal small-scale studies and Quality Service Reviews as a Case Practice Specialist, and functioning as a Project Manager while spear heading the agencies education reform efforts as the Assistant to the Deputy Director for the Office of Clinical Practice.

Ms. Bowden is a licensed graduate social worker that has been and continues to be sought after to work on many agency and city initiatives. Ms. Bowden was appointed to work with the DC Superior Court: Family Court Judges on various subcommittees including Working with LGBTQ youth and Education. Working to improve the quality of life on a micro and macro-level for children and families has always been and will continue to be the passion exemplified in her work.

Ms. Bowden is a native of Greensboro, NC. She received her BA in Criminal Justice from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in December 1999 and her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh in April 2002. In her spare time she volunteers for the D.C. Rape Crisis Center as a Hospital/Hotline Advocate.

Sara Hunter

Project Coordinator

Ms. Sara Hunter joined the staff of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform and Systems Integration at Georgetown University as the Project Coordinator in February 2008.

Sara previously served as the Special Assistant to the Executive Director at the Governor’s Office for Children in Baltimore, Maryland.  Through this position, she played a critical role in coordinating the members of the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet and their staff on cross system collaboration and services on the state and local levels. In addition, her activities included supervising all press conferences and major events, acting as the liaison to the state legislature and managing any special projects for the Cabinet, the Executive Director and the Office.

Sara graduated from St. Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, in May of 2003 with a B.A. in Political Science/Political Communications with a minor in History.  After graduation, she was hired as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary in the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS).  Through her close work at DJS with the Systems of Care Initiative, she was transferred by then Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., to the Governor’s Office for Children, Youth and Families (now the Governor’s Office for Children) to work with all the child serving agencies on interagency initiatives.

Sara resides in Rockville, Maryland.

Cynthia Madison

Administrative Assistant

In September 2007, Ms. Madison joined the staff of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform and Systems Integration at Georgetown University Public Policy Institute as Administrative Assistant to Shay Bilchik, founder and Director of the Center.

Prior to joining the Institute, Ms. Madison was employed with the Federal government for over 40 years. After many years of dedicated service, Ms. Madison retired in July 2007. Although Ms. Madison retired from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), her work experience includes working for the U.S. Department of Commerce and The White House; particularly, during the Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton Administrations, respectively.

Prior to retirement, Ms. Madison was detailed to a Congressional commission, i.e. the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC), voted in by Congress and initiated by the National Prison Rape Act of 2003. Ms. Madison served as the Administrative Officer and Travel Manager for this Commission for over 2 years. This Commission was under the leadership of the Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice.

Prior to her detail, Ms. Madison served as Staff Assistant and Scheduler to J. Robert Flores, Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice. Ms. Madison was also Executive Assistant to Shay Bilchik for many years during his tenure first as Associate Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, then as Administrator, OJJDP/OJP at DOJ. Ms. Madison has earned numerous outstanding performance awards during her entire Federal government career in all areas of her work performance.

Ms. Madison is married and resides in Waldorf, Maryland.

Research Assistants

David Barish, MPP, Georgetown Public Policy Institute 2008

David graduated from Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute in May with a master's degree in public policy, with a concentration in education, social and family policy. Prior to coming to CJJR, he was at Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families.

Erika Pinheiro, JD/MPP Candidate, Georgetown Law/Public Policy Institute 2010
Erika is in her second year of the dual law/policy degree program with an interest in public sector reform in the developing world. She has a background in migration and development and most recently interned at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva, Switzerland. She is currently working on an advocacy project involving juvenile immigrant gangs.