Loyola University Chicago

Robert Mindell has been a human service professional since 1967, following his graduation from the University of Illinois. He has worked exclusively in the field of child welfare since 1980. During this time, he has worked at all levels of the system, serving as a caseworker, investigator, follow-up worker and supervisor.

From 1994 until 1996, Mindell served as an Executive Assistant for the Child Welfare Services for the Governor of Illinois. He has also served as a Special Assistant to several Directors of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).

In December 2002, Mindell retired from his position as Senior Public Service Administrator for DCFS. While Mindell has spent most of his child welfare practice in the public sector, he also served as Director of Planning for the Jane Addams Hull House Association. Since 1997, Mindell has worked on Indian child welfare issues in Illinois, which included active participation in all aspects of the Culturally Responsive Child Welfare Practice with Urban Indian Children and Families' U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Training Grant. Mr. Mindell was also responsible for overseeing the initial development of the Latino Consortium and has been actively involved in Latino child welfare services for a number of years.

In addition to his administrative and earlier direct service practice in child welfare, Mr. Mindell has also been very engaged in child welfare related scholarship. Some of his work has been published in Child Welfare, featured in the Children's Bureau Express, and reviewed in Children's Rights. Mr. Mindell is currently a consultant for a number of human service organizations and serves on a number of agency boards and advisory committees, including the Catholic Charities Human Rights Review Committee. He is currently the Cc-Coordinator of the Loyola Latino Child Welfare Training Initiative.