A long journey has brought me to the Wenatchee Valley in central Washington state. I am thrilled to purse the next leg of my career in a newly created role as Washington Family Support Network Director in support of family well-being and development across the entire state of Washington for Children’s Home Society of Washington.

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, the third child of two teachers. Growing up my mother partnered with a local hospital to develop a therapy program for women and children, and my father received his master’s degree in education, serving as president of his teacher’s union. Community service and development was my family’s culture, and it has informed the decisions I have made in my education and career.

I eventually received my bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, after stops in Iowa, Thailand, and India. After graduation I had the honor of spending a year providing career counseling as an Americorps volunteer, an experience that confirmed my desire to pursue a career in counseling. I moved south and earned a Master of Science degree in clinical mental health counseling from Loyola University New Orleans. This began a decade-long career path that moved from working in historically underserved communities in Louisiana, to developing and implementing trauma-informed treatment programs in a women’s prison and juvenile facility in Denver, CO, and finally managing the Child and Family Counseling program for CHSW in Wenatchee, Wash.

It was a difficult decision to choose to leave the clinical realm for a much bigger and broader scope as the new Washington Family Support Network Director, however; ultimately, the opportunity to step into a newly created role within the organization to help develop something that will positively impact families statewide and ideally set the standard for delivering services to families in a way that is accessible, approachable, and integrated was an opportunity I simply could not refuse.

I am passionate about service delivery looking like the community it is working to serve; about preventative care being focused on the system, not the individual, and about increasing and improving access to services in rural communities. The Washington Family Support Network will be an opportunity to focus on all of that through pooling resources statewide, helping service providers learn from each other and advocate for each other for the betterment of all families in Washington. We will also have opportunities to share our success with networks across the country, laying a foundation for more effective and efficient family support nationwide, that does not compromise local identity.

It is an exciting time to be in this work, and I cannot wait to buckle-up and see where this new road takes me and our collective team as an organization.

Nathan Koch is the Washington family support network director