Jennifer Roland, PhD, MSW is the Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs at Illinois Collaboration on Youth (ICOY). In this role she leads ICOY’s policy and legislative plans by articulating and executing ICOY’s strategic policy agenda. As an intersectional scholar Dr. Roland examines public policy with an intersectional analysis to better understand how the policy will impact people navigating social service systems. Before her role at ICOY, she was the Family Advocate Coordinator for the PATH program in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. She developed curriculum that centered the lived experiences of parents who navigate the behavioral health care system in Illinois for their children. Her research interests include using the theory of intersectionality to examine the overrepresentation of African American Children in the Child Welfare System, centering lived experience as standpoint theory, and using spiritual activism to address community violence. One of her most rewarding roles was providing support to adolescent girls experiencing homelessness while parenting their young children in Las Vegas, NV.