Penny Michel is a Development and Facilitation Specialist at the Alliance.  She is member of a team who is responsible for development and facilitation of pre-licensing and continuing education trainings for licensed caregivers, kinship caregivers, adoptive parents and community members.

She began her career in early childhood education and transitioned into the human services field.  This experience provided an opportunity to work in positions as a licensor for childcare and foster care.  She came to the Alliance in 2014 and became a Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Practitioner in 2019.

She received her Masters of Social Work (MSW) from UW-Seattle and completed the process to become and Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LISCW.)

Her ideal self-care consists of Forest Bathing with her Dog Nation while they get their zoomies out and traveling with overweight luggage to faraway places to swim with the fishes.

Renee Siers - siersr@uw.edu

Reneé’s journey in Child Welfare began many years ago when she and her husband Tom became foster parents. Over the years she and her husband have adopted four children, which have given them many opportunities to work with the Child Welfare system. Reneé gained a passion for working with families while being a co-trainer for the Resource Family Training Institute. She went back to school and obtained a Master's in Social Work at Eastern Washington University. While working on her Master’s degree she studied attachment and the affects of trauma on children and adults.

Reneé has a desire to help Care Providers gain the tools they need to effectively parent the children who come into their homes. She believes a sense of humor can go a long way when dealing with difficult behaviors.