Cassie Statuto Bevan

Cassie Statuto Bevan received her doctorate in Child Development from Columbia University. She completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Bush Program for Child Development and Social Policy at the University of Michigan. Under the auspices of the Society for Research in Child Development and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Statuto Bevan came to Washington DC having been awarded the Congressional Science Fellowship. As a Fellow, Cassie worked on the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1984. With the establishment of the U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, Dr. Statuto Bevan joined the Committee as a Professional Staff Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families where she later became the Staff Director. In 1991, Cassie was awarded a grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation to look at the child welfare system. She worked on this grant at the National Council for Adoption, Washington, DC. In 1996, Dr. Statuto Bevan joined the Professional Staff of the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Ways and Means where she became the Subcommittee Staff Director. In 2001, Dr. Statuto Bevan worked as the Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Majority Whip and later held the same position for the U.S. Majority Leader. During her tenure on Capitol Hill, Dr. Statuto Bevan was a principal staffer on many domestic and international proposals that later became public laws including: the Inter-Ethnic Placement Act of 1996; the Adoption Tax Credit of 1996; the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997; the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999; the Inter-country Adoption Act of 2000; the DC Family Court Act of 2001; and, the Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of Foster Children Act of 2006. Cassie retired from the U.S. House of Representatives after twenty years of service in 2007. Cassie has served as a congressionally appointed Commissioner on two federal commissions: U.S. Commission on Child and Family Welfare and the U.S. Commission to End Child Fatality. Dr. Statuto Bevan has also served as a consultant to the W.T. Grant Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, Center for Adoption Policy and Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Programs through the Dave Thomas Foundation. Dr. Statuto Bevan has testified before Congress on both the federal and state levels.