Biography

Gerard Wallace, Esq.

Gerard Wallace, Esq. is the director of the New York State Kinship Navigator, the only statewide kinship program, administered by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services and operated by Rochester's Catholic Family Center.  Mr. Wallace also serves as project consultant for the AARP Kincare Project funded by AARP Foundation and New York Life Foundation. In addition he is co-chair of the New York State Kincare Coalition, a member of the Kinship Advisory Committee of the Child Welfare League of America, and the Senior Director of Programs and Advocacy to the National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights.

A Magna Cum Laude graduate from Albany Law School in 1997, Mr. Wallace was a Sandman Fellow in Aging and authored a monograph on the legal issues facing non-parent caregivers. Throughout his career he has interviewed over five thousand kinship caregivers and has written many articles on their legal issues.  In 1999, he authored an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the precedent-setting grandparent visitation case, Troxel v. Granville.  His brief was later featured in the Congressional Digest's Supreme Court Debate.  Additional writings include columns for the New York State Elder Law Attorney and for Grand Magazine, as well as New England’s “Common Ground”, the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, West Law's Elder Adviser, and an op-ed column "Foster Care with Love" for the Washington Post.

In 2005, he authored the summary report, "Enabling Kincaregivers to Raise Children" for the first New York State Kincare Summit held by AARP NY and the New York State Kincare Coalition. In 2008 Mr. Wallace was the chief author of the summary report, “Kinship Care in New York: A Five-Year Framework for Action” for the second Kincare Summit, and he is currently drafting a third report based upon the June 2010 Kincare Summit in Albany.

For five years Mr. Wallace served as director of Hunter College's Grandparent Caregiver Law Center. He is a co-founder of the National Committee of Grandparents for Children's Rights and continues as a member of the Board of Advisors. Mr. Wallace was instrumental in the passage of New York's Grandparent Rights Act; he participated in writing the Parental Designation Act; and facilitated negotiation of the recent Relative Foster Parent Act.  

Frequently called upon as an authority for Kinship Care, he has presented at numerous conferences, summits, and commissions, including the Warren Anderson Breakfast series for New York State legislators; the First International Summit for Grandparents and Kinship Caregivers; and the first intergenerational conference at Kent University England. He has advised legislators in numerous states on the legal issues burdening grandparent caregivers and has worked as an advisor to programs for Catholic Charities Caregiver Program, Cornell University Cooperative Extensions, Presbyterian Senior Services new GrandParent Apartments in New York City, and many others.

In June 2010, for outstanding service and dedication to Kincare families, Mr. Wallace was recognized with the National “Janet Sainer Award” by the Brookdale Foundation, and in July 2009 he received the “National Kinship Advocate Award” from Generations United.