December Staff Recognition
Monthly Highlights of our CASA Community
Every month we recognize a few of our staff members for different achievements and milestones they've reached. This month we highlighted three individuals and invite you to read below to get to know them.
Cecilia Herrera
Advocate & Crossover Supervisor
About 3 months ago, Cecilia was approached about a training topic, “Working with Incarcerated Parents”, for the past 3 months Cecilia has worked closely with Elizabeth to create and prepare content from scratch. Cecilia has been a great colleague and has gone above and beyond to assist Elizabeth in helping her correlate both their backgrounds to bring forth an informative training. Together they have created content, handouts and have met on several occasions to ensure the training is custom to our Volunteers’ needs. Cecilia has demonstrated a positive outlook and her contributions to this agency are priceless. We are blessed to have her be part of the CASA family.
Elizabeth Hatch
Recruitment and Training Assistant
With less than 5 months in her position, Elizabeth has demonstrated to be a team player. Her creativity, task productivity, and willingness to learn continuously exceed department expectations. Her dedication to our mission, her ability to take part in New Volunteer training, and her ability to onboard new volunteers says a lot about her skills and strong work ethic. Most recently, in collaboration with Programs, Elizabeth has created and will train on an Inservice training topic that we have not held at CASA before. I am excited to see Elizabeth expand on her training skills even further and continue to take our department to new heights.
At CASA, our goal is to serve 100% of the children and families in need experiencing foster care and strong community partnerships help make that possible.
In March 2025, Child Protective Services removed four young children, just 7, 4, 2, and 3 months old, from their mother’s care. This difficult step followed ongoing concerns about neglect, largely connected to the mother’s struggle with substance use, even during her most recent pregnancy. Although CPS offered support through Family Based Safety Services, the mother was unable to engage in the help provided. The children’s father was also unable to support them due to his own substance abuse and his incarceration in Bexar County Jail. Before removal, the children’s basic medical and educational needs were going unmet. They had been moved repeatedly between their mother and other relatives, leaving them without the stability, routine, and nurturing supervision every child deserves. When CASA Staff Advocate, JoAnn Herring, was assigned the case in April 2025, she immediately reached out to both kinship caregivers to understand the children’s needs and how to best support the families stepping in to care for them. JoAnn quickly learned that the paternal grandmother, who lovingly took in some of the children, was struggling financially and facing barriers due to limited English proficiency. To ensure she wasn’t facing these challenges alone, JoAnn submitted a CFE (Collaborative Family Engagement) referral and personally provided translation support so the grandmother could access services with dignity and understanding. Throughout the case, JoAnn has witnessed moments where cultural sensitivity was lacking, and personal biases influenced important decisions; often at the expense of what was best for the children. Despite these obstacles, she continues to advocate steadfastly and compassionately for the children to remain with the kinship caregivers who have opened their homes and hearts to provide safety, consistency, and love. Although the case is not yet over, Joann’s story demonstrates that CASA’s advocacy reaches beyond the children themselves, strengthening the village of care and support surrounding them, because CASA wants children to be safe, to thrive, and to have their overall well-being protected.
