Suzanne Shell

Suzanne Shell describes herself as a mom who has researched and written extensively on the issue of child welfare. As a former foster child, she knows firsthand the life-long detrimental effects visited upon a child that are caused by well-intentioned government interference into a family's autonomy and privacy without justifiable cause. Accordingly, her viewpoints reflect the importance of their own parents and extended family in the life of a child.

She acknowledges that this is a radically unique perspective in the child welfare industry, yet it is not as inconsistent with the states' mandates to protect children from child abuse and neglect as the states would have the public believe. To that end, Ms. Shell has created uniquely powerful and effective alternatives to "business as usual" practiced by both the professionals who administer these cases and families who are the subject of these cases.

Her books and other writings spawned the grassroots family rights movement in the 1990's. Her strategies have proven to be so successful that they have been duplicated and disseminated by virtually every organization advocating for the fundamental human right to family association and parental rights.

Her work includes the creation and presentation of accredited Continuing Legal Education courses for professions who practice in this area of law, as well as training and education for family members involved with child welfare agencies, and for professionals who administer these cases.

She has traveled the county, testifying before legislative bodies, and speaking on this subject to public assemblies and offering her own presentations for over fifteen years.

In the course of her work, she has been targeted by state agencies for retaliation based on her activism. Her freedom of association, press and speech has been repeatedly challenged and subject to punitive sanctions. She finds her access to the courts for redress of her grievances to be thwarted by courts who are hostile to her viewpoint. At one point, she was found in contempt of the Colorado Supreme Court for her web site content and other writings, which contained information and methods expressly permitted in writing by the court.

She is currently expanding her body of works beyond child welfare issues, into fiction and other non-fiction subjects. Regardless of the subject she covers, she is a compelling and engaging writer whose literary works appeal to the intelligent and open-minded reader.