Audrey Tousant Shelby, MSW, is a assistant teaching professor of practicum education. She joined the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work in 2022, after service in the field of child welfare for 16 years in the private and public sector. Professor Shelby was fortunate to begin her child welfare career at a local nonprofit, SHIELDS for Families, where she designed, implemented and managed child welfare programs spanning the continuum from prevention to post adoption services. From there she was promoted to oversee the child welfare division. Mrs. Shelby would move on to provide children welfare jurisdictions with technical assistance, coaching, training, and workforce development across California, to enhance practice and improve outcomes for children, youth, and families that touch the foster care system.
Through her workforce development efforts, Professor Shelby has facilitated training, taught and developed curriculum to address issues of cultural responsiveness, fairness and equity, effective engagement and interviewing, and experiential learning through simulation in child welfare. She has also supported implementation of various state and local policies and practice initiatives to improve the child welfare system including diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, child and family team meetings, safety-organized practice, resource family approval, permanency roundtables and family finding.
Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Professor Shelby served as the children services administrator (chief of staff) to the chief deputy director (CDD) of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. There she served on various key initiatives moving the department's strategic plan forward including the implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act, Thriving Families, Risk Stratification, and various initiatives under the Office of Equity.
Professor Shelby is dedicated to analyzing the underlying causes and of disproportionality and disparity of children of color in foster care, particularly African Americans and lifting up promising practices to address disparities in care. With her lived experience as an adoptee, she is committed to child welfare reform to help the foster care system transform to a system of child well-being, enhancing the lives of those who touch the system and supporting families to effectively reunify and stay together.