2025 FEI Leadership Forum
The 2025 FEI Leadership Forum brought together almost 200 Pennsylvania Judicial Officers and Child Welfare Professionals. All 20 FEI counties participated in this event.
The forum’s purpose was to provide a networking opportunity for all 20 FEI counties, to promote FEI model fidelity, and to provide FEI counties with cutting-edge resiliency research. During the Leadership Forum, county teams participated in several interactive breakout sessions and activities to discuss best practices in the dependency system. A mock trial demonstrated how all courtroom participants can utilize the Family Finding Report to the Court to support the children and families by including their kin connections.
The highlight of the event was county team time. During this time, county teams worked to apply new information learned to their County FEI Implementation Plan.
FEI County Leaders left the forum with new information on how best to implement the FEI and with new connections with other FEI counties. Their participation made the forum a great success!
Handouts included: 10 Keys to Successful FEI Oversight Team Meetings, Family Engagement Initiative Fidelity.
To view the PowerPoint Presentation click here.
The Why behind FEI by Dr. Tammy L. Hughes, PhD, ABPP
Tammy L. Hughes, Ph.D., is a Past President of both the Division of School Psychology (16) of the American Psychological Association (APA) and Trainers of School Psychologists (TSP). A fellow of the American Psychological Association, she served as the Chair of the APA’s Board of Education Affairs (BEA), Chair of the Child, Adolescent and Family caucus as a Representative to the APA Council (CoR), 2019 APA Task Force to Develop a Blueprint for APA Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Health Service Psychology, 2017 APA Summit on High School Psychology Education, and 2009 APA Presidential Task Force on the Future of Psychology Practice. At present, she is active in APA’s Coalition for Psychology in the Schools and Interdivisional Task Force on Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
Dr. Hughes is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Early Childhood and Infant Psychology and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of School Violence, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, and International Journal of School & Educational Psychology. Dedicated to effective communication with the public, Dr. Hughes is a writer of “notes to parents” published inside APA’s Magination Press therapeutic books, on websites providing tips for teachers as well as interviews with the press. Her writing is in the area of child violence, differentiating emotional disturbance and social maladjustment, and understanding the relationship between emotional dysregulation and conduct problems in children.
Dr. Hughes is a licensed psychologist, certified school psychologist and Board Certified in School Psychology. Her clinical experience includes assessment, counseling and consultation services in alternative education and juvenile justice settings focusing on parent‐school‐interagency treatment planning and integrity monitoring. She is currently funded to help school and justice service providers to address the needs of youth, especially those with autism who have juvenile justice contact.