Meet Our MCs
We're excited to announce two amazing advocates as our event MCs: Ebony Chambers and Kristina Tanner.
Ebony has previously served as an Institute MC, as has Kristina (who also will join us as part of this year's plenary panel). We're thrilled to welcome them both back to our Institute!
- Ebony Chambers, Advisor, Stanford Sierra Youth and Families
- Chambers is an award-winning speaker, educator, and equity strategist with more than 20 years of experience in behavioral health, leadership development, equity and community engagement. Bringing both professional and lived expertise to her work, she is the Founder of Healing Grace Studios and an instructor with the UC Davis Center for Family Focused Practice. Chambers has worked nationally to support organizations in building more inclusive, culturally responsive systems and leadership practices. She is known for her dynamic facilitation style, authentic storytelling, and commitment to advancing wellness, connection, and equity across communities.
- Kristina Tanner, Special Projects Coordinator
- Tanner has been an advocate for foster youth since 2015. She draws from her personal experience in the foster care system to drive systemic change in child welfare and juvenile justice. Tanner works at local, state and national levels, shaping policies and collaborating with lawmakers and organizations to address systemic issues. Through advocacy, education and reform efforts, she aims to create a supportive environment for foster youth, ensuring access to essential resources and opportunities. As a speaker, she raises awareness and inspires action to transform the child welfare system for future generations.
Meet Our Plenary Panel
Our panel of esteemed speakers will kick off the Partnerships for Well-Being Institute with an engaging discussion on "The New Foster Care Tiered Rate Structure: Connecting Across Systems to Better Serve Children, Youth and Families." The panelists will provide a high-level overview of the Tiered Foster Care Rate Structure and how CDSS is collaborating across the system of care throughout implementation.
- Angie Schwartz, J.D., Deputy Director, Children and Family Services Division, California Department of Social Services
- Schwartz leads the work of Children and Family Services Division which is responsible for designing and overseeing an array of programs and services for California's at-risk children and families. Angie’s focus is on creating a child and family well-being system to ensure engagement with a family in crisis proactively supports the parent and child, values the child’s family and community, and promotes all aspects of wellbeing so that the child and family can heal and thrive while addressing disparities and inequities within the system.
Schwartz joined CDSS with nearly two decades of experience in child welfare reform. Prior to joining CDSS, she served as Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at the Alliance for Children’s Rights, where she spearheaded efforts to revamp California’s rates and services to be fully inclusive of kinship families. Her advocacy resulted in a culture shift across the California child welfare system to one that truly prioritizes kinship families. In addition, Angie was instrumental in the successful effort to extend foster care benefits to age 21 in California to support our youth in attaining independence and led efforts to ensure foster youth with disabilities are able to access social security benefits prior to exiting foster care. Earlier in her career, she worked for the Public Interest Law Project and the National Center for Youth Law.
Schwartz earned her Bachelor of Arts from American University and J.D. from Stanford Law School. - Emily Smallson, MSW, Project Manager, Children and Family Services Division, California Department of Social Services
- Smallson manages the highest priority projects for the Children and Family Services Division. Emily is an expert at ensuring a high level of internal coordination at the executive level on projects that involve cross-functional teams across multiple Divisions. Additionally, Smallson ensures coordination and engagement with a variety of internal and external partners, stakeholders, and tribes. Most recently, her work has focused on overseeing the development of the Tiered Foster Care Rates proposal, the advancement of the proposal through California’s Budget process, and the implementation of the Tiered Foster Care Rate Structure. Smallson provides mentoring and support for other project managers across the Division. She earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.
- Kristina Tanner, Special Projects Coordinator, Youth Law Center
- Tanner has been an advocate for foster youth since 2015. She draws from her personal experience in the foster care system to drive systemic change in child welfare and juvenile justice. Tanner works at local, state and national levels, shaping policies and collaborating with lawmakers and organizations to address systemic issues. Through advocacy, education and reform efforts, she aims to create a supportive environment for foster youth, ensuring access to essential resources and opportunities. As a speaker, she raises awareness and inspires action to transform the child welfare system for future generations.
Meet Our Closing Keynote Speaker
We are delighted to welcome Sixto Cancel as our closing keynote speaker. He will be speaking on "The Relationship Is the Work: Anchoring Connection Amidst a Changing Tide."
Sixto Cancel is the Founder and CEO of Think of Us. A former foster youth, he has built one of the most innovative organizations in the social sector—mobilizing governments to redesign policy and practice, advancing kinship and lasting family connections, addressing the challenges young people face as they age out of foster care, and ensuring lived experience guides meaningful reform.
His TED Talk on transforming foster care has been viewed more than a million times worldwide. Cancel has been recognized as a White House Champion of Change, Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Ashoka Fellow and Schmidt Innovation Fellow. Today, he is leading a national movement to transform child welfare into a true child and family well-being system.
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For additional information about the 2026 Partnerships for Well-Being Institute, please visit our main event website.