ABOUT

Meet Erin Shea McCann

Erin is a licensed attorney with experience representing and advocating for children and youth in Washington’s foster care system, as well as children and youth experiencing homelessness. She started her legal career at Columbia Legal Services, a nonprofit, statewide civil legal aid program, where she served as co-counsel for the state’s 10,000 foster children in a class action foster care reform settlement agreement. Erin worked to ensure that the (then) more than 25,000 homeless students in Washington were properly identified and served by their school districts under federal homeless education law. She also advocated to protect the due process rights of foster children in the State Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.

Following her work with Columbia, she joined the Office of Family & Children’s Ombuds, a state agency that investigates complaints against Child Protective Services and Child Welfare Services. She later joined The Mockingbird Society where she served as the Director of Public Policy & Communications. In that role, Erin led the agency’s strategic advocacy and policy agenda at the local, state, and national level —in collaboration with young people who experienced foster care and homelessness — to improve foster care and end youth homelessness.

Most recently, Erin started her own consulting firm, E.S. McCann, LLC, where she works with communities, policymakers, government agencies, programs, nonprofit organizations, and private funders to elevate the needs and voices of vulnerable children and families. With over 15 years working in direct service, policy advocacy, nonprofit, and law to affect change, E.S. McCann, LLC empowers clients to achieve meaningful and sustainable progress for children, youth, families and their communities.

Erin graduated from the University of Washington and received her J.D.,cum laude, from Seattle University School of Law. She is the Vice President of the Board of Directors with Open Arms Perinatal Services, a nonprofit focused on strong community-based support for women through pregnancy, birth, and early childhood. Erin and her husband Mike, a teacher with Seattle Public Schools, have two young children.