A Special Letter from our Founder and Director Emeritus, Shay Bilchik
Posted in Announcements
“It goes without saying that the reason that our Center exists is because of the vision and the leadership of our organization’s founder, Shay Bilchik. For those of you who know Shay, you know just what a special person he is. To so many in our field—including myself—Shay has been a friend, a mentor, a role model, and a trusted colleague and partner. Someone who has consistently approached the work with incredible vision, creativity, grace, a wonderful sense of humor, and a genuine sense of humanity. We had the opportunity to celebrate Shay at our 2025 Janet Reno Forum at the end of April with a surprise special tribute video and the announcement of a new award in his honor: the Shay Bilchik Award for Innovation in Youth Justice. As you read his words below, and learn more about his extraordinary career, you’ll understand how fitting the award is: he led with innovation, with compassion, and with unyielding dedication to help our country’s youth and families.
On a personal note, I want to congratulate my dear friend, Shay on an incredible career. You know how I feel about you, but please know that I’ll always be grateful for your belief in me, for your friendship and mentorship, and for the honor of carrying out your legacy as we continue on the work of the Center here at Georgetown. Whether it is through the multi-systems work that you help establish or partnering with jurisdictions to create local transformations through custom certificate programs, we are here to help.”
Michael Umpierre, Director
Dear friends and colleagues – I am writing to announce a career transition and to share my perspective on the changes we are facing in the youth justice and related systems of care – challenges very directly and negatively impacting our most disadvantaged children, youth and families.
My career transition is that I will be retiring from Georgetown University on June 30, 2025. I start this message, therefore, with thanks to my family for their unwavering support throughout my career. My wife Susan, and children Melissa and Zach, have not only been tolerant of my tireless work schedule, but have also encouraged me to pursue a career that forced them to share me with so many others. Their love and presence in my life has sustained me at countless points in time during my career. Thanks also goes to Georgetown University and Judy Feder, Harry Holzer and Joe Ferrara for their support in founding the Center and their belief in the importance of having a research center at the university that focused on youth justice issues. The success of the Center would not have been possible without them.
When I founded the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform in 2007, I hoped it would become an influential voice in shaping best policy and practice in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, particularly as it relates to working across systems of care. Eighteen years later, it has more than accomplished those goals. It has done so through its Crossover Youth Practice Model, formally recognized as a promising program by the U.S. Department of Justice and the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (widely regarded as the most trusted resources in their respective fields), its Certificate Programs and a variety of other innovative initiatives. The Center has engaged thousands of policy makers and practitioners in every state in how to better serve multi-system involved children, youth and families. I am extraordinarily proud of what the Center and its committed staff, now led by Director Michael Umpierre and Senior Deputy Director Macon Stewart, have achieved since 2007. I can only imagine the heights this dedicated group of professionals will reach in the future. What I know for a fact, however, is that they will be undeterred by any obstacles put in their way as they navigate the troubled waters we are now facing.
The path of my career has brought me into contact with thousands of committed and passionate individuals who were deeply committed to serving this nation’s children, youth and families. While my career and learning curve were shaped by those individuals and a few key mentors that opened my eyes to the value of the work in this field (individuals like Judge William Gladstone and Judge Seymour Gelber), there is no doubt that the person from whom I learned the most was Janet Reno, both when she was State Attorney in Miami-Dade County Florida and U.S. Attorney General.
She was steadfast in her commitment to abiding by the rule of law, understanding the importance of youth, family and community partnerships in our work, the need to focus on prevention and youth development in the juvenile justice system, and ensuring that our work was done in a fair and equitable manner. She would often ask me the question: what would the ideal juvenile justice system look like across this country? It was a question that would eventually launch hundreds of demonstration programs and research projects at the U. S. Department of Justice.
The themes referenced above were at the heart of many conversations I would have with AG Reno, both when she was State Attorney in Miami Dade County, Florida and as U. S. Attorney General. Those conversations laid the foundation for the OJJDP agenda we adopted during the Reno tenure as Attorney General when I led that office – and on a more personal note, helped to invigorate me throughout my career.
She infused in me the notion that in my leadership role I would need to relentlessly pursue a national children’s agenda, one that would address issues around child abuse and neglect, early childhood and youth development, delinquency prevention, effective interventions, educational supports and mental health and substance use treatment. I did my best to achieve that goal while at OJJDP, CWLA and over the past 18 years at Georgetown University.
As I reflect back on my career, I realize how fortunate I was to have her as my mentor and inspiration. Whether as State Attorney or Attorney General, she was committed to abiding by the rule of law and doing what was right in seeking justice. She didn’t contort the law or the facts – instead, she doggedly determined the facts and applied the law to them in a fair and equitable manner. Sounds simple, but as we know all too well, it takes strength and integrity to stay true to this course.
As I retire I know that the Center at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Policy, now renamed the Center for Youth Justice, will continue to pursue that children’s agenda. It is in the DNA of the Center and its amazing staff. It is also essential that it do so in an environment that has become increasingly toxic and unjust – and to some degree, inhumane.
I recently spoke with a judge who had been reassigned from the juvenile/family court to the Criminal Division in their jurisdiction. The judge missed her previous assignment and the values and mission driven work in which she engaged each and every day. While still surrounded by dedicated staff and lawyers in the Criminal Division, she missed the sense of community that she experienced in her previous assignment. It is that sense of community and common purpose – and the children I have been committed to serving – that has kept me on my career track. It is that community I will miss most; the opportunity to work side by side with judges, child welfare caseworkers, juvenile probation staff, lawyers, educators, treatment providers, policy makers, family members and the youth themselves. It is that community that understands the potential of every youth and family if we partner with them in a supportive manner. It is a community that doesn’t treat them as “less than,” but instead values them for all of their potential and inherent worth. In that regard, I recall a quote from Fariborz Pakseresht, former Director of the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) and co-author of the Center’s Youth in Custody Practice Model:
“Generally as a country I think we can do much better – rather than approaching the youth as a victim or villain, looking at the youth as incredible, beautiful human beings that could become contributing members of their community. If we can begin to really weave that in the culture that we’re creating, as well as into the mindset of the youth, and then support them when they return back to the community, we can really begin to plant the seeds of a new future – not only for the youth, but for the communities that they go back into.”
So as I bring this to close, I leave you with another quote, one that very much supports the perspective shared by former OYA Director Pakseresht. I have used this quote in many speeches and most recently at the 2025 Janet Reno Forum. It is from perhaps an unlikely source, Albert Einstein, but one that presents our challenge in moving forward with the agenda in which so many others and I so fervently believe:
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
I hope you agree that this is a fitting way to describe the challenge we face today as we address the needs of the most vulnerable among us and in an increasingly difficult environment. To all with whom I have had the pleasure and honor of working over my 48-year career, thank you for joining with me in this journey; for being my friend, colleague and teacher. I wish you all strength, courage and great success in the work that lies ahead.