Our Team
Kevin Campbell
Kevin Campbell is an American Child Protection, Children's Mental Health, and Health Care Innovator and the Co-founder and CEO of Pale Blue. Pale Blue is a collaboration that seeks to disseminate learning and participatory methods which explore the intersection of Equality, Economics, and the Environment as the foundation for human health, flourishing, and justice. Kevin developed Family FindingTM and Family SeeingTM, a set of strategies now utilized throughout North America, Australia, and Western Europe to convene, catalyze and facilitate families, communities, and governments in their work to respond to the problems which most affect our lives and futures.
Kevin and Pale Blue. have authored and contributed to developing health plans in the United States that equitably improve access and quality of health care for millions of Americans. In addition, Kevin's Family FindingTM and Family SeeingTMresulted in changes to family engagement practices, reaching millions of families in the United States, Europe, Australia, Cambodia, and Canada.
Family FindingTM was included in a Federal bill, Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. President Bush signed the bill into law, mandating Family FindingTM for every child entering foster care in the United States. In 2011, President Obama signed the Children and Family Services Improvement and Innovations Act which included Family Finding as an innovative strategy to improve America's Child Welfare System. Finally, in 2014, Family FindingTM was legislated for the third time with inclusion in the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act.
In 2018, Kevin was an expert in a successful lawsuit in the United States Federal District Court on behalf of parents and children forcibly separated at the United States Border by implementing the Zero Tolerance Immigration Policy Executive Order. In addition, Kevin supported efforts by the Seneca Family of Agencies and their Todo Por Mi Familia program to deliver services to reunified children and their parents to heal the harmful effects of forcible and prolonged separation as part of a settlement agreement with the United States Government.
Kevin is a Senior Consultant and Advisor for American health insurance companies focusing on redefining whole person, whole family, and whole community health as something people build together, not something we receive at the doctor or therapist's office and pharmacy. Each of us has significant abilities to shape our future health by how well we live together today. The ultimate upstream approach in protecting the safety of children is promoting the well-being of parents and families, not as the recipients of government-funded programs and services but as having the authority, resources, and freedoms to be actors and authors of our own lives.
In 2020 Kevin, Pale Blue. and the Kempe Center at the University of Denver created a Truth Telling in Child Welfare collaborative that is spreading across the United States. Young people, parents, relatives, and Tribes to share their testimony and post-traumatic wisdom about the harms of family separation and policing as a proxy for child safety in America.
Kevin's work was twice on CBS 60 MINUTES with Leslie Stahl and in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazine, and dozens of other national and international publications. He continues to speak on the issues of youth and families worldwide. He has published several articles on the need for radical reform of Child Protection, Children's Mental Health, Juvenile Justice Systems, and equitable, high-quality health and mental health care.
Elizabeth Wendel
Elizabeth is the president and co-founder of Pale Blue, a collaboration that seeks to disseminate learning and participatory methods at the intersection of Equality, Economics, and the Environment for the foundation of human health, flourishing, and justice. Pale Blue. honours the relational capability for justice and equity for each of us on this pale blue planet we call home.
Elizabeth is an accomplished expert and author in the frameworks of Family FindingTM and Family SeeingTM, dedicating her career to justice doing side by side with young, people, parents and families. Her work began in Philadelphia, where she established the Family Finding program and provided services to over 10,000 young people, connecting them with over 26,000 supportive kinship and relational connections. Her impact extends to families across the United States as well as Australia, Romania, Mexico, Colombia, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast.
Elizabeth holds a Master's in Social Work from Temple University. During her time in graduate school, she worked in Philadelphia's only Family Finding program and with teen parents, where she devised a family networking model. Her experience as an end-of-life grief counselor in hospice gave her valuable insights into the impact of social environment on human relationships and the human condition.
Elizabeth possesses a comprehensive understanding of organizational culture and how it affects the success, morale, and learning of an organization. She has created tools to tackle "model fatigue" in large-group learning and has extensive experience in organizational culture, funding strategies, capacity building, facilitation, trauma-informed practices, and long-term support for youth in care. She is also a certified trauma-informed care expert.
Elizabeth serves as a senior advisor to two of the largest healthcare companies in the United States, provides advisory partnership to government and private organizations in Western Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Her areas of expertise include strategic design, policy framing, practice model development, Family FindingTM, Family SeeingTM, and work in children and adult mental health systems. Beginning 2020, Pale Blue. and the Kemp Center at the University of Denver, created the Truth Telling in Child Welfare collaborative, which is spreading across the United States, allowing young people, parents, relatives, and Tribes to share their testimony and post-traumatic wisdom about the harms of family separation and policing as a proxy for child safety in America.
Elizabeth is a published author and continues to write with focus in economic justice, health and human wellbeing. "Imaginative thoughts ignite the spark, but only gain strength with the beating of hearts together. Each day, the next, and the one after that, a consistent pursuit of action sets change in motion."