Year Honored: 2019

Born in: Delaware

Biography

Tania Culley became Delaware’s first Child Advocate in 2000 and has led Delaware’s Office of the Child Advocate since that time. As Child Advocate, she manages an office of 39 employees and contractors, including eleven attorneys who primarily represent children in Family Court proceedings. Her office supervises a pool of over 250 volunteer attorneys, 200 Court Appointed Special Advocates, the CASA Program, and the Office of the Investigation Coordinator. As well as provides legislative, policy and educational advocacy and training to Delaware’s child protection community. Since its inception, the Office of the Child Advocate has represented more than 6,000 of Delaware’s most vulnerable children.

Culley serves as Executive Director of the Child Protection Accountability Commission; Delaware’s Citizen Review Panel, which reviews all Delaware child abuse deaths and near deaths; and is a Commissioner on Delaware’s Child Death Review Commission. She serves on many additional committees and task forces focusing on child abuse, court improvement, youth aging out of foster care, and juvenile justice.

Over the years, Culley has drafted and lobbied for many statutory changes to Delaware laws on behalf of children, in the areas of guardianship, termination of parental rights, adoption, education, custody, visitation, child death and near death, civil child witness, and multi-disciplinary coordination.

Culley also conducts many trainings and professional development forums relating to children involved in legal proceedings, and her office serves as a consistent resource for attorneys appointed to represent children in Family Court.

A Delaware native, Culley is a graduate of Christiana High School, the University of Delaware and Widener University School of Law and is a Certified Child Welfare Law Specialist through the National Association of Counsel for Children. Culley is the proud mother of two daughters.
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Sources and Additional Information

Courts, D. (n.d.). About Us. Meet the Staff - About Us - Office of the Child Advocate - Delaware Courts - State of Delaware. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://courts.delaware.gov/childadvocate/about-us/staff.aspx.