Special Assistant Professional, Missouri Department of Social Services

Dr. Alyssa Bish is a Special Assistant Professional for the Missouri Department of Social Services, Children’s Division. She has seven years of combined work experience leading, managing, and building strong foster care networks through evidence-based practice. Her research has focused primarily on sibling relationships and resilience outcomes for foster and adopted children. Alyssa serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children in foster care. Being involved in her local community has brought a personal and unique perspective to her research, allowing her to understand the complexities of navigating diversity and sustaining strong family ties with birth, foster, and adoptive families. Her goal in this work is to better understand the lived experiences of children in foster care and how it impacts their family identity. Alyssa is a strong advocate for using research to inform foster and adoption policy in an effort to help families have strong, healthy relationships.