Advisory Panel Member Profile

Kelly Opot

Harris County Youth Collective
Executive Director

Areas of Expertise:

Your Customers, Their Journey, Customer Experience in your Organization-Navigating Politics of Change

Kelly Sowards Opot leads the work of the Harris County Youth Collective as Executive Director. In this role since 2017, she is responsible for guiding the initiative’s strategy development and implementation of best practices to improve coordination among systems and overall outcomes for youth who have dual system involvement with juvenile justice and child protective services. In this role she leads a Steering Committee with representatives from over 20 organizations that work with dual status youth, including Harris County Family and Juvenile Courts, the Department of Family and Protective Services and Harris County Juvenile Probation Department.

Prior to joining the initiative, Kelly worked for Corporation for Supportive Housing as Associate Director for Texas, where she worked with communities across the State of Texas to improve system responses to vulnerable populations, using housing as a platform for health, stability and employment. Kelly has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Public Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

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