CAD 2026 Speakers
Dr. Lucas Trautman, MD, MPH, ABPN, ABPM is a board-certified psychiatrist who specializes in child & adolescent psychiatry and addiction medicine. He has a background in pediatrics and is a former wrestling coach at Christian Brothers High School, from where he is a proud graduate. He currently serves as the Medical Director at Lakeside Behavioral Health System's Child and Adolescent Division, Professional Care Services, and Oxford Treatment Center near Memphis, TN.
Dr Trautman believes in the goodness of every child & teen, and you can read more about him via his contributions to The Washington Post, VICE, The Memphis Flyer, and The Tate Record.
Marquita Little Numan is a passionate and strategic advocate committed to empowering people, removing systemic barriers, and advancing equity. Over nearly two decades, she has worked through government, nonprofits, and philanthropy to support marginalized communities and advocate for improved public policies.
Numan currenlty serves as the Executive Director at Partnership for America’s Children. Her leadership experience extends to reviving the Urban League of Arkansas after a 20-year absence in the state, as inaugural president and CEO, and serving as Leadership Officer at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. She brings deep experience in state policy and advocacy, holding roles instrumental in advocating for and shaping Arkansas’s early adoption of Medicaid expansion and spearheading child health initiatives.
Keesa Smith-Brantley has served as the Executive Director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families since 2023. Keesa worked for the Arkansas Department of Human Services from 2013 until 2023 as the Deputy Director of Youth and Families. In that role, she oversaw the divisions responsible for the state’s child welfare, juvenile justice and early education programs during a time of significant transformation.
Paige Parks is Executive Director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT. From 2019-2022, Paige served as Rhode Island KIDS COUNT’s Senior Policy Analyst responsible for policy analysis, advocacy, and project management in areas related to education and economic well-being. Prior to joining Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, Paige served as Director of Advancement and Assistant Director for Books Are Wings, Network Director for the Youth 4 Change Alliance/ Youth In Action, Development Director for Fusionworks Dance Company, Teacher/Advisor at The Met Center, and Safe Zone Coordinator at Youth Pride, Inc. Paige is the proud parent of two beautiful children, one of whom is a child with special medical needs.
John Wilson serves as the President and CEO for Kansas Action for Children. He works closely with the Board of Directors to set long-range goals, strategies, plans, and policies that allow the organization to fulfill its mission. John served on the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund and has been a member of the Governor’s Council on Education, Tax Council, and Census Complete Count Committee. As a former Kansas State Representative, John has a unique understanding of the legislative process and the people who shape policy in the Statehouse. John’s education and experience in design guides the way he approaches policy change — focusing on making ideas clear, relatable, actionable, and focused on people.
Rachael Deane is the Chief Executive Officer at Voices for Virginia’s Children. She provides overall strategic and operational leadership for Voices’ staff, programs, and execution of its mission.
Rachael’s career has been dedicated to legal and policy advocacy for racial equity and economic justice at the local, state, and national levels. She joined Voices after many years as a legal aid attorney and as Legal Director of the Youth Justice Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, where she led policy campaigns to end Virginia’s school-to-prison pipeline and to fund student mental health supports in public education. Prior to her career in children’s law and policy, Rachael led statewide and national investigations into housing and lending discrimination as an advocate with Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, Inc., and the National Fair Housing Alliance.
Zoe Ward is the Tennessee Youth Poet Laureate and a National Gold Medalist in Poetry. Zoe is a graduate of the Iowa Young Writers' Studio, the Adroit Journal Poetry Mentorship, and the Columbia Multi-Genre Creative Writing Workshop. Her work has been recognized by The Atlanta Review, DIALOGIST, Gannon University, and the JFK Foundation, among others. To book the Youth Poet Laureate or to learn more about how youth can participate in the Youth Poet Laureate program, email benjamin@southernword.org.
Sixto Cancel is a nationally recognized leader driving systems change in child welfare, working across tech, service delivery, research and data, and state and federal policy to improve outcomes for youth and families. He has a proven track record of mobilizing cross-sector partnerships and lived-expertise to drive effective innovation at the local, state, and federal levels to solve both entrenched and emergent challenges.
As CEO, Sixto is responsible for creating and leading organizational strategy to drive fundamental systems change in child welfare systems across the country. This includes advising state and federal government leaders and bodies to adopt best-practices and improve policies, partnering with private-sector providers and state agencies to design and build novel technological and practical solutions, creating and managing direct service programs to improve resource accessibility, and directing a research center innovating participatory research practices to address historical knowledge gaps.
Sixto incorporated Think of Us in 2017 as a tech nonprofit, initially designed to use virtual storytelling to shed light on the experiences of foster youth. He led Think of Us through a rapid evolution, creating the Think of Us app in 2018; assisting the Federal government and 44 states in disbursing $400M in Federal pandemic relief funds to former foster youth in 2020-21 through the Check for Us campaign; building the Lived Experience Network, the nation’s largest virtual community of lived-experts in child welfare in 2021; and launching the Center for Lived Experience to center lived-experience in research and national policy making in 2022.