Leadership Team

No bio.

Stephanie is the Operations Manager and Volunteer Coordinator for Safe Passage for Children. She believes that children are people too and believes in the crucial work that Safe Passage for Children does to speak up for children, especially those who are most vulnerable and need our support. Stephanie holds a Masters Degree in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota’s school of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD), a Bachelors of Science Degree from Saint Cloud State University in K-12 Teaching, and has been licensed as a Teacher in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Georgia, and as a PK-12 School Principal in Minnesota. Before joining the team at Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota, Stephanie was a public school teacher who taught hundreds of children each year at elementary, middle, and high schools as an Orchestra teacher, a Band teacher, and a Substitute Teacher over the course of her educational career. She especially enjoyed connecting with parents and families of her students to truly understand and appreciate each of her student’s unique lives and needs. Stephanie has also served as a volunteer with several Twin Cities area nonprofit organizations, including College Possible, People Serving People, and as an elected Board Member of the Payne-Phalen District Five Planning Council in Saint Paul and co-founder/co-chair of the D5 Environment Committee. She is an avid violin and fiddle player, a singer, songwriter, artist, and gardener.

Lisa Hollensteiner is a physician who recently retired from the Emergency Department after 32 years in practice. Due to frustrations with receiving inadequate responses to her reports to Child Protection about children who had been abused or were in significant danger, she sought out involvement with Safe Passage with Children as a way to improve child welfare. Lisa subsequently served on the Governor’s Task Force for Child Protection which put forth 91 recommendations. Some key improvements were prioritizing the safety of the child in statute,  standardizing the screening process for calls and entry to  Child Protection amongst counties, and changing statute to allow reviewing previous reports when evaluating a current report. She recognizes that there is still much work to be done and is committed to continuing to work toward change through legislative advocacy with Safe Passage. Lisa is board certified in both Family Practice and Emergency Medicine. She was a member of the Pediatric Committee and the Emergency Department Quality Committee. She also gave educational lectures to the medical staff about recognizing the importance of social factors such as home environments, abuse, mental health, and previous traumas, and how they impact better understanding and providing the best care for the patient. She currently lectures on medical advocacy, advance care planning, and how to best navigate medical care.

Greg spent all but 15 months of his 40 year social work career working in the Child Protection system. He retired from Hennepin County, Minnesota in June, 2014, after having worked there for 37 years. Greg worked as a direct service worker in both the case management and the investigations areas of Child Protection. He was a unit supervisor for 30 years in foster care, Child Protection Case Management and for the last 24 years of his career in the areas of Child Protection Screeening, 24/7 Immediate Response and mostly in the area of CP Investigations. Greg served on several hospital and community based Child Abuse Teams, as well as on the Hennepin County Child Abuse Team. He also functioned as the Child Protection liaison for Hennepin County with the Minneapolis, Bloomington and Richfield Police Departments. For a number of years during the 1980’s and the early 1990’s Greg was also an adjunct faculty member of the University of Minnesota School of Social Work. Greg received his BA in sociology from St. John’s University (Collegeville, MN) and his Master’s of Social Work from the University of Minnesota. During his working career he was a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the Academy of Certified Social Workers. He was also licensed as a “Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker” by the State of Minnesota Board Of Social Work.

Ghazi is an experienced nonprofit leader, with experience in finance, accounting and information technology (IT). He currently is a consultant for nonprofit organizations. Most recently, he was chief financial officer for Living Well Disability Services, in Eagan, Minn. In that role, he led the financial and IT affairs of a $21 million nonprofit organization serving the needs of people with disabilities. From 2008 to 2012 he was director of Finance for the Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF), based in Minneapolis. Although the HPF itself received little public attention, it was formed in the wake of the mortgage crisis in 2007. With the backing and direction of the White House, it ran a phone hotline to help distressed homeowners.  Ghazi created financial processes for this $63 million agency’s work with major banks and counselors; the hotline eventually helped millions of homeowners restructure their mortgages and keep their homes. Ghazi also served as director of Finance and Regulatory Services, Housing and Employment Services, for the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, from 2005 to 2008. From 1990 to 2005, he was chief financial officer for Growing Home, a Saint Paul, Minn.-based, multi-state foster care organization with a $12 million annual budget.

Nalee is a mom of a blended family, wife, entrepreneur, coach, mentor, community advocate-leader, Team Lead of her Real Estate Team, and a Shamanic Energy and Spiritual Healer. After attending Hamline University and graduating with a B.A. in Legal Studies and Paralegal Certificate, she worked in the legal field for 12 years as a Complex Commercial Litigation Senior Paralegal. Nalee’s passion to help children fueled from different aspects of her ability to see and empathize as a natural born Shamanic Healer, to the years of hardship through life as a single mother who protected her child’s best interest and fought to keep her blended family safe from a neglectful and toxic environment. She started her journey with Safe Passage as a volunteer in 2015 and later became a board member and annual donor. Nalee extended her ability to advocate for children and women to being a voice in the BIPOC community. She led a 4-year term as the first Hmong person and Hmong Woman Vice-President and President of the national organization, Asian Real Estate Association of America-Twin Cities Chapter. AREAA is one of the four largest diversity trade organizations in the nation to promote homeownership within the AAPI community and close the racial disparity gap. Nalee later became one of the Co-Founders of the first and largest annual BIPOC homeownership events in Minnesota, “Twin Cities Diversity Homeownership Fair,” where real estate, lending and housing professionals come together to educate and empower thousands of consumers annually. Today, Nalee continues to find ways to advocate for neglected children to protect their innocence and diverse families of multi-generations who want to achieve the homeownership dream. She believes that if we want to see change, start first by raising children who will be of contribution to society and have compassion to love and help humanity in return.

Calvin is an “ex-officio” member of the board of directors. In that capacity, he advises Safe Passage and participates in board discussions, sharing his firsthand knowledge of the system, how it can affect children and families, and how he helps them navigate that system. Calvin was born in Arkansas, moving at a very young age to Wisconsin and, ultimately, Minnesota. From ages one to 12, he was in the foster care system. He began his career as a substitute teacher in Minneapolis public schools, and later held a managerial position with AT&T until becoming one of many managers to lose their positions as part of a corporate downsizing. In the meantime, he became involved with the child protection system as a volunteer guardian ad litem with Hennepin County. That later led to a contract position as a guardian ad litem and, eventually, to working in that position full time. He has been a full-time guardian ad litem for seven years. Calvin says that, in his role, he is responsible for making recommendations to the court as to what is in the child’s best interests. In fulfilling that role, he has no “agenda,” whether in favor of parents, the court or any other parties to a child protection case. He is an officer of the court, given the room needed to gather the facts about a case and bring those facts – and his recommendations – to the family court judge. Calvin enjoys his current work because it gives him the opportunity to have a genuine impact on the lives of children who are subject to family courts and the child protection system. Guardians ad litem, he says, can help end the “downward spiral” that can trap victims of child abuse and neglect.

Melissa DeBilzan is the former executive director of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (MNAAP), where she worked for 10 years before deciding to spend more time with family. During that time, she oversaw a variety of work groups that met on a regular basis, managed multiple state and national grant projects, communicated with legislators and state agencies, planned annual conferences for pediatric professionals, organized Pediatricians’ Day at the Capitol, and led numerous other activities that contributed to the organization’s mission of advancing the health and wellbeing of children in Minnesota. One of those work groups was on child abuse and maltreatment. 

She has more than 20 years of experience in communications and project management, mainly for small nonprofits but also for small businesses. She earned a degree in journalism from the University of St. Thomas in 2001 with a concentration in public relations and a minor in computer science. 

Melissa recently earned a Digital Marketing Professional (DMP) designation from the American Marketing Association/Digital Marketing Association to better understand how organizations can better leverage digital communication tactics. She is a wife and mother of 5 children and also serves as a mentor to 8 international students in Saint Paul. 

Maggie Carney is  a retired pediatric nurse (RN) formerly employed at Children’s Minnesota Hospital for the entirety of her 40-year career.  As a pediatric nurse she advocated for the health and safety of her young patients in multiple areas, completing her career at Midwest Children’s Resource Center (MCRC) a clinic within the hospital specializing in the evaluation and treatment of suspected abuse patients.  Maggie has valuable experience interfacing with a variety of community partners including child protection, law enforcement, court officials, mental health and public health providers.  She continues to hone her skills through regular attendance at peer review conferences with her former local and national colleagues.  Maggie’s knowledge base and expertise in the child abuse field brings valued skills to the Safe Passage for Children of MN board.

Rick recently retired after 35 years with Dakota County Social Services. In his final position at Dakota County, he supervised the Child Protection Investigation Unit. Throughout his career he has dealt with child and family matters including but not limited to truancy, mental health, chemical issues and investigations of child maltreatment cases. He testified to the Governor’s Task Force on Child Protection issues and provided advice and program enhancement ideas to the commissioner of the Department of Human Services. When asked about his accomplishments and what he was proudest of during his career, Rick said it would be developing a strong group of child welfare investigators at Dakota County who “work well as a team and with law enforcement and the court system.” Prior to working for Dakota County, Rick worked for three years in social services for St. Louis County and, prior to that, in Lake County Minn. in a County Group Home for adolescent boys. Rick is an advocate for high-quality work and training for social workers and other professionals that work together in the child protection system. He continues to be interested in reforms that would look at waste, duplication, and the burdensome paperwork requirements that exists in the state’s child protection system and to also look at the poor outcomes in specific areas and provide any support to ensure that the child protection system that is currently in place can be viewed as a model for other states.