The APSAC Lifetime Achievement Award

Please join APSAC in congratulating Stacie Schrieffer LeBlanc for the APSAC Lifetime Achievement Award. Professor LeBlanc was nominated by Dr. Kathleen Colburn Faller, one of the most influential pioneers in the field of child maltreatment and former APSAC board member. Dr. Faller said, “Everyone recognizes and is grateful for Stacie’s service to APSAC, the organization, but Stacie also needs to be recognized for her work in the field.” Professor Stacie Schrieffer LeBlanc is a tireless leader, advocate, and innovator in the fields of child welfare and child maltreatment prevention.

 

Her service to APSAC has been nothing short of extraordinary. Over the years, she has held numerous leadership roles, including APSAC Board Member, President, and now President Emerita. She has served as the unpaid interim executive director and since 2016, Chair of Training and Professional Development, both of which entails storing boxes APSAC material in her garage. Among her many contributions, she has been instrumental in building the APSAC Colloquium in New Orleans and providing us all with some amazing extracurricular activities such as the Second Line event.

 

Thanks to Stacie’s vision and dedication, the Colloquium has had the largest attendance in APSAC’s history. As president of APSAC during COVID, she was able pivot and grow APSAC’s online cutting-edge education and collaboration to nothing short of phenomenal, training thousands of child welfare professionals from across the country and around the world at a time when many non-profits weren’t sure they would survive the pandemic. However, as Dr. Faller made clear, it’s not the amazing work Stacie has done for APSAC that she is receiving this award, it is because she has demonstrated the same level of passion throughout her career.

 

Her life’s work has been defined by an unwavering dedication to protecting children and strengthening systems that serve them. She began her career as a child abuse prosecutor more than 25 years ago. She received the “Outstanding Prosecutor Award” from Victims and Citizens Against Crime for her unit’s 94% conviction rate and the prosecution of a 20-year-old child rape case, which garnered national media attention.

 

Stacie opened Child Advocacy Centers in rural and urban parishes in Louisiana, became the chief of the Felony Child Abuse Division, and began the Family Violence Program. She later became a driving force behind the New Orleans Children’s Advocacy Center and Audrey Hepburn CARE Center, two nonprofit programs for Children’s Hospital New Orleans that annually treated more than 1,500 children. As Executive Director, her leadership helped shape critical services for vulnerable children while providing legal education and advocacy to improve outcomes.

 

True to her commitment to the next generation, Stacie regularly teaches on the prevention of child sexual abuse. In 2017, she launched the Child Advocacy Studies Training (CAST) Program as an adjunct professor at Tulane University and is now an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Tulane School of Medicine. Hence, Professor LeBlanc!

 

One of Stacie’s greatest desires is addressing the most prevalent risk factors for child physical abuse, the physical discipline of children, and she leads the way as Chair of the National No Hit Zone Committee and is the current chair of the executive committee of the National Initiative to End Corporal Punishment.

 

In 2019, Professor LeBlanc co-founded The UP Institute, a national prevention organization dedicated to disrupting practices that lead to child maltreatment. Among its many initiatives, The UP Institute has championed “No Hit Zones,” promoting safe, violence-free environments for children in hospitals, agencies, and communities, a proven, research-based approach to preventing child abuse and Tree for Champions memorializing the children who have lost their lives to child maltreatment.

 

While APSAC recognizes her for a lifetime of achievement, anyone who knows Stacie knows she is far from finished. With her boundless energy, optimism, and unmistakable smile, she will continue to shape the future of child welfare with the same passion that has defined her remarkable career. The only thing more important to her than her work is her family.