Nicole DeWitt & Seth Persky
Since 2012, Nicole DeWitt has been the Special Projects Facilitator at Michigan Public Health Institute on the Child Death Review program. In that capacity, she serves as the coordinator of Michigan’s Citizen Review Panel on child fatalities. This group of state-level professionals conduct complete case reviews on child fatalities where the family of the decedent has prior CPS history. Based on those case reviews, the panel submits annually a report to MDHHS that outlines findings and recommendations for system improvement. Nicole also is the State of Michigan Infant Safe Sleep educator for all child welfare staff. Before her work in child death review, Nicole was a foster care case manager for both domestic and refugee foster children in Michigan. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Community Services and a Masters in Management. Nicole is a current member of the National Citizen Review Advisory Panel.
Seth Persky serves as the director of the Office of Family Advocate, a unit within MDHHS Children’s Services Agency which focuses solely on issues of child welfare and 1) reviews fatality cases where a child has had contact with CPS or foster care 2) acts as an internal monitoring mechanism for MDHHS’ child welfare programs 3) serves as the liaison office between MDHHS and Michigan’s Office of Children’s Ombudsman 4) responds to constituent inquiries related to child welfare 5) is responsible for several MDHHS policies, including the Department’s confidentiality policy. Prior to the OFA, Seth served as a foster care worker, a supervisor with Michigan’s progressive Family Preservation programs, and as a specially certified trainer for the state for over 10 years. Seth obtained his Bachelors of Psychology and Masters of Social Work from University of Michigan and lives in the Brush Park neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan.
