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Staff Bios

Tom C. Rawlings is Director of the Office of the Child Advocate.  In that role, he serves as the child welfare ombudsman for the state and as a senior policy advisor to Governor Sonny Perdue and his agency heads on juvenile justice and child welfare matters.  Prior to his appointment to his current position in June 2007, Tom spent seven years as the first full-time juvenile court judge for Georgia's Middle Judicial Circuit.  In that position he handled child abuse and neglect and juvenile delinquency cases in a five-county area.  As a judge, he was active in establishing a CASA program and a truancy court for his circuit; served on the executive council of the Georgia Council of Juvenile Court Judges; and created a court therapist program to serve the mentally ill and behaviorally disturbed children in his court.  Tom has given seminars across the country on issues related to juvenile law and child welfare and has taught juvenile law and American judicial procedure in Romania on a Fulbright Senior Specialist fellowship.  In 2006, the State Bar of Georgia’s juvenile law committee named him Juvenile Court Judge of the Year.  A graduate of Duke University and the University of Georgia School of Law, he resides in Sandersville, Georgia with his wife, Kay, and three sons.

Melissa Dorris Carter serves as Deputy Director for policy issues at OCA.  Prior to her work at OCA, Ms. Carter served as Training Director for the Supreme Court of Georgia's Committee on Justice for Children, a federally-funded program focused on improving the processing of civil child abuse and neglect cases in the state's juvenile courts.  Working closely with Governor Perdue, other executive branch agencies, the Legislature, and the child advocacy community, Ms. Carter helps lead OCA's efforts to make Georgia's child welfare system excels at protecting children from harm and providing services to them and their families.  Ms. Carter has extensive experience in child welfare law and policy.  Before graduating from the University of Illinois College of Law in 2002, she worked as a student case manager with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and as a legal intern at the Children's Rights Council in Washington, D.C.  Following her graduation and admission to the State Bar of Georgia, she served as a Post-Graduate Fellow in Law at Emory University Law School's Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic.   In addition to her work experience, Ms. Carter brings to OCA her credentials as a published scholar on child welfare policy; the relationships she has built working as a pro bono attorney, as a federal child welfare reviewer, and as an active member and former chair of the State Bar's Juvenile Law Committee.

Sherry Bryant is the Victim Advocate Program Manager. Ms. Bryant was a child protective services investigator with 9 years of experience with the Department of Family and Children Services. She worked 2 years with the Bibb County Solicitor's Office where she created the Victim Witness Assistance Program for the State Court of Bibb County. Ms. Bryant has trained as a forensic interviewer through CornerHouse Children's Advocacy Center, based in Minnesota. She serves on the Central Georgia Council on Family Violence and was a member of the Bibb County Domestic Violence Task Force.

Robert Z. Hernandez is an evaluator with the Office of the Child Advocate. Prior to joining the staff of the OCA, Mr. Hernandez was a captain with the Macon Police Department with over thirty years of investigative experience. Mr. Hernandez supervised a violent crimes investigative unit with the Macon Police Department and worked closely with the Bibb County DFCS. Under his supervision and leadership, a liaison office for a Bibb County DFCS Case Manager was created to improve the working partnership between law enforcement and child protective services. Mr. Hernandez has a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice and is P.O.S.T. certified. Mr. Hernandez is of Mexican ancestry and he is bilingual, fluent in both the Spanish and English languages.

Tammy G. Mills runs the administrative and budget functions of OCA.  Prior to joining the office, she worked for Georgia Emergency Management Agency for eight years.  She has deep experience in administration, project management, budgeting, and grant coordination.  She also serves the office as liaison between the director and the public.

Vickie White has been OCA's Referral Specialist since June 2003. She conducts preliminary reviews of complaint information to determine whether they fall within the scope of our mission; and if so, then assigns those cases to the Evaluators on a rotating basis. Additionally, she is responsible for monitoring case complaints sent to OCA from the Governor's Office. Ms. Morgan maintains the office's tracking and case management system so that it can be used multi-functionally for staff and advisory committee meetings and in preparation of the annual reports. Ms. Morgan was a foster care intake case manager for Bibb County Department of Family and Children Services.

Chris Williams is also in the evaluation unit of the office. Mr. Williams has over fifteen years experience in law enforcement where he was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division investigating violent crimes, including crimes against children. Mr. Williams has received the Officer of the Year Award and also the Crimes Against Persons Unit Officer Award. Mr. Williams won the Academic Excellence Award for criminal investigations.