Debbie B. Riley, LCMFT, is C.A.S.E.’s Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. Debbie also serves clients via telehealth throughout the state of Maryland. She earned her Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and her Bachelor’s Degree in Family Studies from the University of Maryland. Since C.A.S.E.’s inception in 1998, Debbie has grown the organization into a national and international mental health resource for foster and adoptive families as well as for the professionals who support them.

Among her many professional accomplishments is her co-authoring of the book, Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens.

Debbie also founded the TAC (Training for Adoption Competency Curriculum) currently taught in 17 states across the country. Through a recent federal five-year grant awarded to C.A.S.E from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Debbie serves as the Principal Investigator to establish a National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI), created to build the adoption competency capacity of child welfare professionals and mental health practitioners that serve youth moving toward permanency as well as youth living in permanent adoptive or guardianship homes.

Debbie is proud recipient of the Children’s Bureau 2015 Adoption Excellence Award. Nominated by Rita Soronen, President and CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, Debbie’s unwavering commitment to providing resources, support and advocacy for children, teens and family members touched by adoption and foster care is in itself extraordinary. Learn more