Key Partners

Anne Roberts

Anne Roberts is a life-long advocate for the health and well-being of children and youth. She served for 20 years as CEO for the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, followed by 10 years at INTEGRIS Health as Director of Legislative Affairs. As a registered lobbyist, she worked with state and national policy makers to advance positive changes for Oklahoma families. She also taught a graduate course at Oklahoma City University for 12 years.

Now retired, she provides consulting services to a number of non-profit organizations, including Potts Family Foundation. She has been a gubernatorial and legislative appointee to a variety of state-wide entities and in 2000, was named National Child Advocate of the Year by Voices for America’s Children and honored with the 2018 Visions Award by the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits for her achievements in nonprofit advocacy and leadership. Anne received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in music from the University of Oklahoma and studied opera in Europe.

Marlo Nash

Marlo Nash is a systems change strategist who is passionate about working with people to achieve big wins over intractable problems. She focuses on supporting community stakeholders in finding ways to build well-being for all children, families and communities. Current clients include the Potts Family Foundation, where she is a member of the Know and Grow Oklahoma Project Management Team, the Maryland Philanthropy Network and the Children’s Home Society of America.

Marlo is certified in Results-Based Facilitation practices and trained in Results-Based Accountability. She helps advance the science of trauma and resilience through participation with the national Child Trauma and ACEs Policy Coalition and the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy & Practice. Her federal advocacy career includes making key contributions to the development of the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018.

Prior to relocating to Springfield, Virginia, Nash spent 10 years with the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy and played an instrumental role in starting the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness.

Laura Porter

Laura Porter has over 20 years of experience teaching about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the power of local people to build a better life now, and for the future. She is a Co-Founder of ACE Interface, a public health education and consultation firm that helps leaders to use ACE Study concepts and build Self-Healing Communities. Self-Healing Communities are places where people use a simple process to build healthy social networks and protect the next generation from violence, addiction, and other big challenges in the home and in the community.

Laura’s work is all about local people being the leaders of change, and funders providing leadership support and partnership. Laura is an officer of the Board of Directors for the Campaign for Trauma Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) and has over 20 years of experience teaching and coaching local, state, and national leaders how to partner effectively for continuous system learning using the values, ideas and unique resources of the people in each community.

Bryn Fortune

Bryn Fortune raised two daughters with special health needs. With 37 years’ experience she has an extensive background in parent partnership and leadership. Historically she led the building of Michigan’s 10,000-member parent coalition network, Michigan’s Home Visiting parent leadership system and the nationally recognized publication, “Stepping Up and Speaking Out: The Evolution of Parent Leadership in Michigan”. Bryn serves as a Parent/Caregiver Partnership and Leadership content expert, consultant, facilitator and coach in a variety of national and state organizations, initiatives, and serves on several national, state, and community boards.

Currently Bryn is a national parent leadership thought leader and coordinator for the Early Relational Health (ERH) – Family Network Collaborative (FNC). Bryn brings the perspective and partnership with 6 parent leaders representing 6 communities and 66 diverse voices core to the ERH learning collaborative efforts, including parents across the country who identify as Black, African American, and Brown; Indigenous; parents of children with special health care needs or disabilities; Spanish-speaking immigrants; parents representing a Southern cultural background, and fathers.