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Heather Upton knows what it’s like to have one caring adult to help navigate a child through her childhood and teens. She said, “As I was growing up, there was no CASA program, but looking back, I can see how much having a CASA volunteer would have benefited me. Luckily, I had an aunt who was my consistent caring adult. I am not sure where I would be in life right now had it not been for her.”
Where she is at this point in life is serving as Executive Director of Hillsdale CASA.
Heather grew up in Hillsdale but left after high school for Kansas where she worked at a military installation, got her bachelor's degree in Family Studies & Human Services from Kansas State University, got married and had a daughter, and served three years as a CASA with the local program there.
The family moved back to Hillsdale in 2015, and Heather became volunteer coordinator at Hillsdale CASA in 2017. In 2018, she became Hillsdale’s Executive Director and, today, serves as its sole employee, responsible for recruiting, training, and maintaining volunteers, for case management, fundraising, budgeting, marketing, and everything else to keep the program robust.
During her first year (2017) at Hillsdale CASA, Heather tripled the number of volunteers and earned Hillsdale the title of fastest growing program in Michigan. Today, Hillsdale CASA has 23 volunteers. Heather said, “My main goal is to always keep it growing. I would love for every child in foster care to have an advocate.”
Heather connects with the children in care and with her volunteers. “I have found that many of the people who choose to volunteer with us, had traumatic childhoods and want to be that special person in a child's life that they did not have. They truly understand the importance of this incredible program.”
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