Chapin Hall

Dr. Karen Fenton-LeShore is a Senior Policy Analyst at Chapin Hall. Fenton-LeShore leverages her professional experiences in and knowledge of child and family services, evidence-based practice, race equity, curriculum design and leadership and training development to positively impact overall outcomes for children, youth, and families. These interconnected experiences yield opportunities to foster local and federal human service delivery partnerships, design and implement programmatic frameworks, as well as make vital contributions to enhancing organizational infrastructures and advancing capacity building efforts. Fenton-LeShore is a leader in Chapin Hall’s commitment to advance a race equity agenda that is intentionally reflective of an anti-racist organization undergirded by Chapin Hall’s approach to policy, research, and real-world applications. Fenton-LeShore also leverages her broad expertise to advance multifaceted projects in the areas of kinship and youth navigation model development, Family First Prevention Services, workforce development and race equity advancement.

Prior to coming to Chapin Hall, Fenton-LeShore served as the Program Administrator for the Child Welfare Training Academy at the District of Columbia Child and Family Services Agency. As the administrator, Fenton-LeShore led the agency workforce development charge to ensure that frontline social workers, supervisors, and program managers were equipped with the theoretical knowledge and practical application skills in the areas of evidence-based practice, child and family development, child welfare systems, community practices and effective child and family engagement, to name a few.

Fenton-LeShore holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership from Regent University, Virginia Beach; a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University in New York; and a Bachelor of Science from the State University of New York at Stonybrook.