Amanda Metivier (BSW 2008, MSW 2012) is the Director of the Alaska Child Welfare Academy. Amanda an alumni of Alaska’s foster care system, has dedicated her career and personal life to child welfare reform. She co-founded the foster youth led non-profit Facing Foster Care in Alaska in 2003 and launched the Office of Youth Empowerment a partnership of the Child Welfare Academy and Facing Foster Care Alaska in 2018 to offer a continuous spectrum of life skills training and youth-led advocacy statewide. She was a foster & adoptive parent to teens for more than a decade. Amanda’s career in child welfare spans 20 years including extensive direct service work with adolescence, program development, child welfare education and training and policy reform. Amanda has been recognized for her work to amplify youth voice and sharing her own experience. She received the Casey Excellence for Children Award, was named one of Alaska’s Top 40 Under 40, was recognized by Alaska Children’s Trust as a Champion for Kids, was honored by the YWCA as a Woman of Achievement,  was named one of Treehouse Foundation’s Champions for Re-Envisioning Foster Care in in America in 2020, and was recognized by the University of Alaska Anchorage as an Alumni of Distinction in 2021.