Connecticut Voices for Children reached to New Hampshire to hire a new executive director with ties to Connecticut and Yale University.
The New Haven-based research and advocacy group has hired Ellen Shemitz, the former director of the Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Association for Justice.
She will begin work with Voices on Sept. 3.
“Connecticut Voices for Children has an enviable reputation for excellence in its work analyzing, explaining and promoting smart public policies that advance both meaningful opportunity for children and economic prosperity for the state,” Shemitz said in a statement. “I feel privileged to return to my childhood state in a position that allows me to pursue the work closest to my heart in partnership with such an experienced and respected team.”
Shemitz has a national profile in child advocacy circles. She was the national chair of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Steering Committee in 2006 and 2007.
She is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School who moved to New Hampshire in 1987 to clerk for Judge Hugh H. Bownes of the U.S. Court of Appeals. In private practice, she represented children with special needs.
She succeeds Jamey Bell, who resigned last year to become the Child Advocate for Connecticut. Bell has since left the state office to become executive director of Greater Hartford Legal Aid.