Child and Family Well-Being Funders Collaborative Meeting

Shawn Amiel is the Division Chief over the General Relief and CalFresh Division within the Los
Angeles (LA) County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS). She oversees policy
development, maintenance, and implementation of the General Relief, CalFresh, START, and
Cash Assistance for Immigrants Programs, as well as homeless services. Previously, she served
as the Director of the START Program, which provides participants employment and training
opportunities to enhance their skillset and obtain employment in their chosen career pathway.
Ms. Amiel has been working for LA County for 18 years and has been a manager for over 11
years in DPSS. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Southern
California, and a Master in Public Administration from the California State University,
Northridge.

Jackie Contreras was appointed on February 28, 2023, to serve as Director for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), which administers a budget of more than $5.5B and serves over 4M residents. She remains keenly focused on the timely provision of quality services to both internal and external stakeholders, and transformational efforts to equitably promote economic mobility and well-being for everyone DPSS serves.

Prior to joining DPSS, Dr. Contreras served as a Managing Director for Casey Family Programs’ direct service offices, where she led policy and practice efforts that included the development and implementation of a functional assessment and a culturally responsive, family-centered practice model grounded in trauma-and healing-informed care. Additionally, she served in various capacities as a child welfare administrator for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, and worked as a psychologist and manager for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

Dr. Contreras received her B.A. in psychology from UCLA and her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant University.

Prior to joining the County of Los Angeles Chief Executive Office as the Executive Director of the Poverty Alleviation Initiative, Kristina served as the Assistant Director at LA County’s Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) overseeing workforce development programming in 2023. With over 12 years of experience in health and human service programs, Kristina has worked in both local and statewide government as well as small and local nonprofit organizations as a direct service provider. In State service, Kristina served as the TANF Director from 2020-2022 at the California Department of Social Services where she oversaw the State’s CalWORKs program and supported the launch of the first in the nation Statewide Guaranteed Income Pilot Program. In this role, Kristina also led the transition of Child Care programming from the California Department of Education to Social Services through the creation of the Child Care and Development Division. Kristina also served as the Policy Chief for CalFresh (SNAP) and CalFresh Employment and Training from 2018-2020. Prior to state service, Kristina served the community through various nonprofits in LA and Orange Counties. As the Program Director over workforce services at the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA), Kristina launched an expansion effort of workforce programming in serving Immigrant and Refugee families through the English Language Learner pilot program funded by the State. The pilot integrated Vocational ESL with workforce training in over 26 languages and focused on building language and cultural diversity amongst staff leading workforce programming.