NYSPEP Member Spotlight: Judith A. Richards

Judith A. Richards

Ms. Richards is a founding member of NYSPEP and actively serves on the NYSPEP Steering Committee and Co-chairs the Community Cafe Workgroup. 

She spent nearly 40 years in human service administration and direct services in both the private and public sector. Her career encompasses work in youth development, foster care and adoption, crisis respite care services, public education programs, and prevention services in all aspects of family violence including child abuse, domestic violence, and elder abuse. 

Ms. Richards serves as Program Director for the Children and Family Trust Fund through the NYS Office of Children and Family Services*. She is a strong advocate for primary prevention, the cornerstone of her prevention efforts is the NYS Family Resource Center Network and nationally recognized NYS Shaken Baby Prevention Program. 

Her responsibilities center on administering state and federal funds, oversight for over 50 prevention programs across the state, fostering collaboration at the state and local level, standardizing data evaluation efforts to improve practice and outcomes for families, facilitating professional development opportunities for local and state staff through various partnerships, and contributing to the creation of universal safety messages for parents related to abusive head trauma or Shaken Baby Syndrome and safe sleep practices for infants and children. 

Due to her long standing experience in parenting education and prevention services, Ms. Richards serves on numerous state and national tasks forces and workgroups. She served on the National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds' Board of Directors for many years and on the National Advisory Group for the federal Crisis Respite Program. She is a standing planning committee member for the NYS Annual Child Abuse Prevention Conference sponsored by Prevent Child Abuse New York and contributes to various workgroups through invitation from FRIENDS National Resource Center and the Children’s Bureau. Ms. Richards attended the PREVENT Child Maltreatment Institute and completed a year-long Supervisory Institute sponsored by OCFS.

*UPDATE: Ms. Richards retired from the NYS Office of Children and Family Services in November, 2014.