Amy Wiltsie graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in HDFR (Human Development and Family Relations) from UConn in 1998. She then worked as a case manager at Kennedy Center Services, a rehabilitation program for disabled adults. After one year, she felt she had learned what she could in that organization and was ready for something new. Amy began her twenty-year career with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) in 1999, as a Social Worker. At DCF, Amy served as a treatment worker, where she worked with families who were at great risk of losing their children due to neglectful situations. Most families had a high level of need, and required support and resources for stability and successful parenting. In 2001, Amy moved on to the Permanency Services unit where she was assigned cases of families entering the Termination of Parental Rights process. This process begins after a family has worked unsuccessfully toward reunification for a period of 12-18 months. Amy spent time searching for and making matches for pre-adoptive placement, facilitating the transition, testifying in court on the efforts the state had made to reunify and support the best interests of the child, and then ultimately applying for adoption finalization in the Probate Court. In 2005, Amy realized a shortage that existed in Connecticut of viable homes and families willing to adopt, and applied for a position in the Foster Care and Adoption Services Unit (FASU). In FASU, Amy began attending public events to highlight DCF’s need, holding informative open houses for families seeking more information, and inviting these families in for formal screening, training, and licensing. Amy loved working for DCF, especially for the children and families she served throughout her career and always desired to continue her education. Never knowing which field to select as her role had navigated from social worker to recruiter and trainer, she struggled with graduate school program selection.
In 2012 Amy’s family was affected by the Sandy Hook tragedy. Their world stopped, like so many others’, and everything began to come into question. From their loss on 12/14/12, Amy’s family developed a nonprofit organization in memory of Vicki Soto, her husband’s cousin and a first-grade teacher killed in Sandy Hook. The Vicki Soto Memorial Fund needed fundraising, board development and legal guidance, and Amy began doing some groundwork research. During her search, she found a Non-Profit Management Program through Post University’s Masters of Human Services degree program. This Master’s Program ultimately led her to a new career, one she had not predicted. Amy began working for the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA as their Annual Campaign Director in 2018. As the Director of a national and international organization, Amy continues to serve youth, families, and communities. In her new role, she solicits support, creates relationships, and raises funds for the Annual Campaign which provides scholarship for those who may need it. These scholarships afford the opportunity of housing for the homeless, preschool, before school, afterschool, swim lessons and summer camp experiences to children whose families cannot afford these programs. These programs help children to be happy, healthy, strong and confident. She views these scholarships as “changing someone’s life trajectory,” a parallel to the lives she worked hard for during her twenty-year DCF tenure. According to Amy: “this was the marriage of my two worlds. The members of our community whom the Annual Campaign benefits are some of the same that I served at DCF; my work continues.”
Amy, her husband Jim, and their three children Ryann (17), Raegan (12) and Jack (10) call Stratford, CT home. In November of 2019, Amy was elected to the Stratford Board of Education, continuing her commitment to best positive outcomes for all of Connecticut’s children.