Dr. Linda Bass became President of KVC Kansas in January 2019. Bass, pronounced “boss,” has been with KVC Kansas for 16 years. She previously served as Vice President of Clinical Services and Well-being, leading KVC’s foster care prevention programs (family preservation), intensive in-home services (aftercare support following each child’s safe family reunification or adoption), and outpatient behavioral healthcare. As President, she now also oversees foster care case management, KVC’s network of foster and adoptive parents, and all other services.

“Linda is extremely competent, operates with strong values and morals, and always places children and families first,” said Jason Hooper. “She is exactly what we want our leaders to be in that she is a consummate professional and always working to raise the bar for service quality. She is driven by achieving outcomes for children, and as President, Linda will leverage her wealth of clinical and programmatic expertise to create brighter futures for the children and families we serve.”

Bass is a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist with expertise in the treatment of trauma, sibling abuse, and child behavior problems. She has worked in child welfare for nearly 20 years. Prior to KVC, Bass worked in child placing, kinship care and residential care. At KVC, Bass led several research-backed initiatives including the implementation of the Kansas Intensive Permanency Project (KIPP); the Kansas Adoption Permanency Project (KAPP); and the creation and growth of an Engaging Parents/Developing Leaders group for parents involved in the child welfare system. She is also a thought leader on the groundbreaking Family First Act which increases funding for foster care prevention by keeping children with their families whenever safely possible.

Bass earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree from San Diego State University and doctoral degree from Loma Linda University. She has published in the areas of sibling abuse, clinical process and practitioners’ perceptions of implementing evidence-based practices.

Bass’s vision for KVC Kansas includes an expanded focus on prevention services, safely reducing the number of children in foster care, and increased support for caregivers and staff.

Danielle Bartelli, Vice President of KVC Behavioral Healthcare Kansas, has been with KVC since 2000, joining just three years into the public-private child welfare partnership between the state of Kansas and KVC. She led efforts to decrease care for children in residential settings such as group homes, increase community-based care of children by relatives and foster families, and reduce the time children were in foster care. She was instrumental in forging community and provider partnerships to ensure lasting change.

Over the last 21 years, Bartelli rose from a family support worker to her current leadership role. She will oversee all programs, ensuring children and families who receive child welfare services have the best possible care. Ongoing program improvement is a priority for Bartelli who is committed to continued implementation of evidence-based practices and measuring outcomes.

Bartelli is a licensed professional counselor (L.P.C.) and received her master’s degree in mental health counseling from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan.

Angela joined KVC Kansas in 2008. Over the past thirteen years, she has held various positions including Case Manager, Permanency Supervisor and Director, and Director of Integrated Services. She recently was the Director of Training, Policy and Data Management. Angela is strategic, solution-focused, and seeks to find common ground through collaboration and understanding. As a former Kansas foster parent and now adoptive parent, Angela brings a wealth of professional and personal experience to the position.

Adrienne Baars is Director of Admissions for KVC Kansas.

Megan Hosterman, LMSW, is the Director of Integrated Services in Johnson and Douglas counties for KVC Kansas.  Megan has earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Social Work from The University of Kansas.  She began her career with KVC in 2007 as a Permanency Case Manager in Johnson County.  From there, she transitioned to the Permanency Training Specialist position in 2010, providing support to multiple counties.  She was promoted to Permanency Supervisor in 2012, and then Director of Integrated Services position in 2016.  As Director, she currently oversees the foster care and child placing programs and works to ensure children reach safe and timely permanency.  Megan is truly passionate about this work and is extremely grateful for the opportunity to help influence positive change in the field of child and family services.

Jerilyn Smith is the Director of Permanency, Topeka and Topeka Rural.

Ms. Smith began her work in child welfare at KVC as a Family Support Worker in 1998 and then worked as a Resource Coordinator until 2000. Ms. Smith worked outside of KVC for a period of time as the Director of Survivor Services with GaDuGi Safecenter, where she coordinated a group of volunteers to provide crisis intervention 24/7 to victims of sexual violence and trauma. Shortly after completing her Masters in Social Work, she returned to KVC and has held various positions over multiple counties in the Kansas City Metro area including Therapeutic Case Manager, Clinical Specialist, Permanency Supervisor and Supervisor of the Adoption Team.

Ms. Smith received her Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology with a concentration in Women’s Studies in 1998 and a Masters Degree in Social Work in 2003 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.

Nicole graduated from Pittsburg State University in 1994 with a Bachelor’s degree in Recreational Therapy. She first joined KVC in 1998 as a Family Support Worker in Family Preservation in southeast Kansas.  She continued working in child welfare with another agency and worked on the Parenting Allen County Together grant, as well as provided drug and alcohol services, resource family services and supervised the KIPP project. In 2008, she received her masters in social work from the University of Kansas. Nicole returned to KVC in April 2013 as supervisor of the KIPP grant.

Nicole has served as Director of Intensive In-Home Services for KVC since 2016. She is the lead PMTO fidelity rater for Kansas, therapist, trainer and coach and she is also overseeing the development and implementation of our new team of Placement Stability Specialists. She has a wealth of experience in child welfare including Family Preservation, Permanency, Child Placing Agency, Substance Abuse Treatment, as well as mental health case management and parent education in the community mental health center setting.

Matt Arnet, LCPC, is the Clinical Director of Outpatient Services for KVC Kansas. As Clinical Director, he oversees the day-to-day operations of the outpatient therapists, medication management providers and master’s level psychologists for the Metro and East regions in Kansas.

Matt began working for KVC as a Therapeutic Case Manager in 2007. When the Outpatient department was formed in October of 2007, Matt was one of the initial eight in-home clinicians. He worked as the Intake Coordinator for the Independence, Missouri School-based Therapy Grant in 2010, before returning to Kansas Outpatient in 2011. In 2012, Matt was promoted to Outpatient Supervisor before being promoted to Outpatient Director in 2013.

In addition to duties with Outpatient, Matt is an internal consultant for Trauma Systems Therapy (TST), completing staffings for children in Family Preservation and Out-of-Home Care.

Matt received his Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2001, and his Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Avila University in 2006.

Abby Herrera has her Bachelors of Science in Justice Studies (minor in Sociology) from Pittsburg State University (May 2014). She has been a Certified Passenger Safety Technician since 2018

She started as a night shift Transportation Coordinator while attending PSU. Since then she has been a Transporter, day shift Coordinator,  Driver Supervisor and Coordinating Supervisor. Abby also helped develop the Transportation Request System inside of the new CARE program.

Jackie Harwig has been with KVC for 15+ years. In her role she is responsible for supporting foster parent recruiters, licensing workers and Community Resource Specialists teams.

Rachel helps lead a team that provides foster care case management services to youth and their families.