Influential Woman · Nonprofit

Nicholle Probst

Senior Director of Childhood Development and Safety, The Villages of Indiana

Granger, IN

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Bachelor's in Psychology and Criminal Justice Degree Master's in Social Work Degree Master's in Business Administration Degree PhD in Leadership Cert Licensed Social Worker Cert Certified Nonprofit Professional

Her Story

About Nicholle

I've been in the child welfare field since 2013, and my journey into this work actually started during my undergraduate years. I was interning with the sheriff's office, thinking I wanted to pursue criminal justice, when I went on a call involving a child who had brought illicit substances to school to turn his parents in because they couldn't care for him and his sibling anymore. I was so concerned about what would happen to those children that I switched paths and did an internship with the Department of Child Services, Indiana's Child Protective Services arm. I actually saw that same little boy again and witnessed him be reunified with his mom, who had achieved sobriety, completed parent education classes, and received mental health services. She completely turned her life around, and that's when I realized this was the right field for me. I wanted to help people, support families, and make sure children have families with the resources to be safe and supportive for them. In my current role as Senior Director of Childhood Development and Safety at the Villages of Indiana, I oversee two key initiatives: early intervention services for children with developmental delays, and Prevent Child Abuse Indiana, which is a chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America. We focus on prevention efforts across the state aimed at primary prevention of child abuse and neglect. I've been with this agency since March of this past year, approaching my one-year mark. My days involve supervising a diverse team including occupational therapists, case managers, and prevention education coordinators, as well as extensive community organizing and developing strategies to impact our communities. I work with local community partners across the state and larger statewide entities, planning events like our April 1st kickoff at the State House for Child Abuse Prevention Month, and fostering collaboration with partners like state police and their child crimes unit for internet safety.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Nicholle

01What do you attribute your success to?

I would say I've had a lot of really wonderful mentors in my field, and they've really helped to shape and model for me what good practice looks like, what support looks like, and what empathy looks like for our clients and also for our staff. I think another challenging thing for people in this field is that burnout is real, and we face a lot of hard situations and hard encounters. How to be supportive to teams is something that I feel like a lot of my past supervisors have instilled in me so that I can hopefully be a good leader to my teams as well.

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

Honestly, in regards to the focus of child welfare, everything is figureoutable. A lot of times we're dealing with families in crisis, and sometimes we're afraid we're gonna make the wrong choice or make the wrong step to helping families with their safety systems. And to that, I always say, everything's figureoutable. There's always options and opportunities for families, we just have to sometimes be creative.

03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I would say my biggest piece of advice is, speak up. Even if you're newer to the field, newer to the industry, maybe younger in your professional career development, everybody has something unique to bring to the table, whether that's through their own upbringing and perspective, their education or their experience, and it's all valuable. So don't ever give up your voice.

04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

I would say probably just a lack of knowledge and awareness about the resources that are out there for our families. And so, really having to work to foster collaboration and connection and sharing of knowledge so that families have essentially a no-wrong-door approach. I want families in our state to be able to go anywhere, basically, and know that they can be connected with the resources they're looking for, whether the agency they knock on the door of have those services in their wheelhouse or not, they'll be able to help them connect. I think that Indiana has a lot of wonderful resources. I would say we're a resource-rich state when it comes to childcare, but we need maybe better partnership and collaboration for ensuring those connections.

05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

Integrity is definitely my number one value, something that is critical to me and the work that I do. I think also just that connection, with empathy being the focus of that, as a value that I try to lead with in my relationships with my teams, my peers, and the clients that I serve as well.

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