Michelle Mares, MS, is the resource, kin, and adoption caregiver specialist for the CWTS, where she oversees the training and support of this critical community of caregivers in Colorado. She is responsible for writing and facilitating the statewide curriculum for foster, kin, and adoptive parents, ensuring that those who provide care for children and youth in crisis not only have trauma-informed parenting skills and strategies, but also the support necessary to perform this unique and challenging role.

Michelle is a faculty member of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse, and has spent more than twenty-eight years working with children and families in various capacities of familial and educational support, more than six years specifically with families who provide care in Colorado. Michelle received her BA from Metropolitan State College of Denver with a double major in speech communications and psychology. At Regis University, she earned her master’s in business management, organizational leadership, with endorsements of strategic business management and executive leadership. Michelle is a certified Organization and Relationship Systems coach and an active faculty member for CRR Global, LLC, a systems coaching organization. She trains other professional coaches around the world in specific coaching curriculums and systems strategies. She is a lifelong Colorado resident.