Critical Conversation: The State of Vaccine Mandates and Community-Based Organizations

Jill Huynh is currently the vice president for new business development at Beech Acres Parenting Center, which is a parent-focused, family-centered organization with the mission of: Inspiring and equipping today’s parents, families and communities to raise capable, caring, contributing children.  Huynh oversees transformative and innovative projects that will guide Beech Acres into the future by responding to the needs of today’s parents.

Parent Connext™ is a program that launched in 2016 under Huynh’s leadership and embeds parenting specialists in the pediatric office to support parents experiencing challenges. With the goal to prevent and/or mitigate toxic family stress, this program brings medical expertise together with parenting expertise to support parents, children and families holistically.  Under Huynh’s leadership, more than 10,000 parents have completed toxic stress screenings and more than 1200 parents have engaged in Parent Coaching services during the initial two years of implementation.

Huynh has been employed at Beech Acres for 20 years. Prior to joining the Beech Acres team, she worked for Psych Systems of Cincinnati and St. Joseph’s Orphanage as a child mental health clinician for several years.

Huynh has been a licensed social worker in Ohio since 1994. She graduated from the University of Louisville with degrees in psychology and sociology.

She has participated in numerous speaking engagements, trainings, and parenting workshops throughout the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area addressing parenting and mental health issues. Huynh was nominated by the Cincinnati Business Courier as a 40 under 40 leader in the community. She is most proud of her two sons, Austin and Owen, as well as her 25 years of marriage to her husband, Minh.

Since 2005, Dr. Eric Schindler has been the president and CEO of Child & Family Resources Inc. (CFR), a statewide community-based nonprofit based in Tucson. Across 13 cities in Arizona, CFR works in communities to promote strong, healthy families and ensure high quality early childhood education so children can reach their full potential. CFR also partners with teens to prevent pregnancy, drug use, and suicide.

Schindler received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona in 1982. After postdoctoral studies in child and family psychology at U.C. Davis, and pediatric psychology in Chicago, he has spent the last 40 years working in Tucson community settings as an administrator, director, teacher, and practitioner. A licensed clinical psychologist since 1984, he had a private practice focused on marriage and family therapy, and substance abuse, and was an adjunct faculty in the Department of Family Studies and Human Development at the University of Arizona for many years.

He and his wife Andrea, a family practice physician, have two adult sons. They enjoy scuba diving, travel adventures to different countries, yoga, hiking, and cycling in their spare time.

In April 2021, David Siler began serving as the executive director of Indiana for National Youth Advocate Program (NYAP). Previously, he served for five years as the president/CEO of Families First Indiana. Siler took Families First through an organizational strategic planning process during 2019-2020 that resulted in a merger with the Children’s Bureau of Indiana. Since the newly merged organization did not need two CEOs, he commenced a job search that led him to NYAP. 

Prior to his time with Families First, Siler served the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis as the agency director of St. Elizabeth Coleman Pregnancy and Adoption Services, followed by his promotion to the executive director for Catholic Charities, where he served for 16 years.  

Siler holds a bachelor’s in business from Ball State University, a master’s in social work from Indiana University, and is a licensed clinical social worker. 

Siler currently serves on the board of directors of IARCA (Indiana Association of Resources and Child Advocacy, a statewide association of organizations serving children); the IN211 Advisory Council for the Family & Social Service Administration of Indiana; the Social Current CEO Council; and Purdue University’s Center on the Family Advisory Council.  

Siler has a passion for family, justice and equity, leadership, and learning. His focus is to help NYAP continue to grow as a champion for children and families in Indiana. 

Ilana Levinson is the senior director of government relations for Social Current. In this role, she represents the organization and its network to Congress and federal agencies. She also coordinates activities and partnerships with partners and policy coalitions in Washington D.C. to advance aligned goals.

Prior to joining Social Current, Levinson served as senior director of advocacy and public policy for YouthBuild USA, a national organization focused on reconnecting low-income, out-of-school youth to education and job training. Under her leadership, the organization more than doubled federal legislative support and increased annual federal investment by $12 million, to $90 million annually. She also cofounded the Reconnecting Youth Campaign, a national advocacy campaign focused on creating one million reconnection pathways for opportunity youth each year. She served as a legislative assistant from 2006-2011 in the office of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), focusing on furthering legislation to expand healthy food access to low-income residents, the promotion of green collar jobs, and efforts to re-engage out-of-school youth in education and employment opportunities.

She received her master’s in public and nonprofit administration from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University and her bachelor’s from Michigan State University.