Brenda McChesney co-founded the National Family Support Network in 2011 and served as its co-chair until 2017. She has dedicated over 25 years to spearheading transformative family support movements at the local, state, and national levels.  She has extensive leadership experience in the non-profit sector, philanthropic sector, and as an entrepreneur and wellness expert. Throughout her career, she has driven exponential growth and excellence in the field of family support by establishing strategic partnerships, shaping collaborative initiatives, developing innovative fee-for-service models, and creating impactful training and technical assistance programs for networks, non-profits, family support staff, children, and families. 

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Her work in the family support field began as a doula and lactation educator in Bakersfield, California. Upon moving to La Veta, Colorado in 2002, she founded Healthy Beginnings of Southern Colorado, providing pre and postnatal family support services for underserved communities. She went on to serve as a Program Director overseeing youth initiatives in Huerfano and Las Animas Counties, providing training for teachers, school administrators, parents, and K-12 students across an array of prevention-based initiatives. 

 

In 2010, she became the Director of Strengthening Families Programs for Colorado’s Family Resource Center Association (FRCA). In that role, she co-founded and co-chaired the Colorado Strengthening Families Network, and co-chaired the Prevent Child Abuse Colorado Advisory Council, the Colorado Strengthening Families Bi-Annual Conference, and the Colorado Early Childhood Partnership.  She served as the Family Development Credential Lead Trainer and a Master Trainer on the Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening & Support. She co-authored the Colorado Family Resource Center Model and the Colorado Family Support Assessment 2.0 (CFSA), which have helped shape Family Support practice, data tracking, and evaluation across the country. 

 

In 2015, she took on a role in philanthropy as a Director at the Hemera Foundation, managing over $10 million in grant funding for early childhood and family support programs across the country.  She was responsible for refinement of funding strategy, grant reporting, establishing framework for investments, creating a cohort of funding partners, and implementing support systems and learning communities to build a strengths-based multi-generational approach for strengthening America’s families.

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She earned her B.A. in Social Science from California State University Chico and her M.A. in the Sociology of Race and Gender from California State University Bakersfield. 

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