Leadership

The National CASA Association is made up of remarkable individuals dedicated to child welfare. Meet our CEO, board president, board members and key staff.

Hear from our newest board members.
 

Our CEO
Michael Piraino has served as chief executive officer of the National CASA Association since 1994, overseeing such projects as a nationwide grants program providing millions of dollars in funding for volunteer advocacy programs, a new 30-hour comprehensive volunteer training curriculum, a national quality assurance program, a major multi-site outcome evaluation project and national public relations efforts.

Piraino has law degrees from Cornell Law School and Oxford University. While practicing law, he represented children as a guardian ad litem and served as a consultant to international social service and child advocacy organizations in Europe and Southeast Asia. Piraino has also worked as a juvenile probation officer and was an associate research scientist for the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University.

Among Michael Piraino's professional achievements, he has authored and co-authored several publications including "Discrimination in Employment" in the Cornell Law Review, A Guide for Children's Advocates and The Children's Databook . He has also been a frequent speaker and presenter at symposia on children, including the United Nations NGO Experts' Meeting on Adoption and Foster Care, the Rockefeller Archives Institute Symposium on Children at Risk and the Amnesty International Forum on Children.

As a result of his service to children, Piraino received the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges' President's Award in 1998 and the New York Decade of the Child Award in 1992.

Our Board President
Judge Ernestine S. Gray is the Chief Judge of the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court in New Orleans, LA. She was elected in 1984 and has been twice re-elected to full, eight-year terms on that court. Prior to that, Judge Gray was employed by the Baton Rouge Legal Aid Society, the Attorney General of the State of Louisiana and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a trial attorney.

Throughout her career, Judge Gray has held leadership positions with children's advocacy, judicial and bar organizations. She is also past-president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. She received her bachelor's degree in political science from Spelman College and her JD from Louisiana State University. Judge Gray has been on the National CASA Board of Trustees since 2001 and serves on the Inclusion and Outreach; Education and Public Awareness; and Standards committees.