Michele Smith

I started my career in the educational field before transitioning to the court system, where I worked with the Drug Court Program for juveniles doing case management. During that time, I had a child who was sick and had to stay home for a couple of years. I then did contract work with the Georgia Department of Revenue as a temp and worked for the Department of Family and Children's Service as a contractor through a private agency. I've always had a care for working with families and children, which led me to apply to work directly for the state. I started out working in investigation as a case manager, then moved up to night shift supervisor for two counties within the same region I'm working in now. I transferred to investigations and family preservations, and now I'm strictly doing foster care and family preservation, preserving families, helping families, and finding permanency for children and families. I enjoy helping people and helping people find resources to be successful in their life. Right now I supervise a team of three to four case managers, and we're very short staffed in our office. A typical day could be court, meeting with my team to discuss families and case plans, talking to families about their case plan, talking to attorneys and providers, lots of documentation, staffing cases with leadership and attorneys, putting out fires, making sure transportation is set up for children to have visits, and making sure documents are completed so providers can get paid or do their job.