Introduction: Gerald P. Mallon, DSW, is the Julia Lathrop Professor of Child Welfare and the Associate Dean of Scholarship and Research at the Silberman School of Social Work at. For more than 43 years, Mallon has been a child welfare practitioner, advocate, educator, and researcher. He was the first child welfare professional in the U.S. to research, write about, and develop programs for LGBTQ youth in child welfare settings.  He has also written extensively about LGBT foster and adoptive parenting. He serves on numerous editorial boards and is the Senior Editor of the professional journal, Child Welfare and the author or editor of more than twenty-three books. His most recent publications are: Social work practice with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, (3rd edition) published by Routledge Press and Child welfare for the twenty-first century: A Handbook of practices, policies, and programs (2nd edition), Co-Edited with Peg Hess, published by Columbia University Press. In his role as the Executive Director of the NCCWE, Gerald Mallon has traveled to all 50 states, many territories and numerous tribes to deliver technical assistance and training on a range of child welfare related issues, particularly as they relate to youth and to foster care.  He has lectured and worked extensively throughout the United States, and internationally in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Cuba, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, and the United Kingdom. Gerald Mallon also lives the talk he talks, in addition to being a child welfare professional for his entire career, he has been a foster parent and is the adoptive parent of now grown children.