2018 NCSEA Board of Directors Election Photo Ethan C. McKinney, DPA Child Support Director St. Joseph County, IN Prosecutor s Office https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-mckinney-76479369/
2018 NCSEA Board of Directors Election Ethan C. McKinney, DPA Child Support Director St. Joseph County Prosecuting Attorney s Office Ethan was born and raised near Detroit, Michigan. He moved to Mishawaka, IN with his father as part of a large corporate move in 1992 and graduated from Mishawaka High School in 1995 followed by Purdue University in 1999 and Notre Dame Law School in 2002. Ethan is a deputy prosecutor and the Child Support Director for St. Joseph County, IN. He was promoted to this position in October 2012. As Director, Ethan manages a staff of 40 deputies and child support professionals, determines policies for the office and serves as the office representative with judges and other elected officials. St. Joseph County has the fourth largest caseload in Indiana with just over 15,000 cases and an annual budget of over $2,000,000. Prior to becoming Director, Ethan served as a child support division deputy prosecutor since 2005 when he joined the prosecutor s office. In this role he handled all aspects of Title IV-D legal work from paternity establishment to enforcement including managing a felony caseload. Before joining the prosecutor s office Ethan practiced in civil litigation and small business representation. Under Ethan s management, St. Joseph County has exceeded the State and National average in all four primary performance categories each of the past four years. They have received the most improved-large county in Indiana for Arrears Collections and Current Support Collections twice. Ethan believes their success is based on the quality of the people they hire and a willingness to adapt and implement new ideas learned from the national child support community. Ethan focuses on improving every aspect of the office and has implemented outreach programs for incarcerated parents, work programs, a jail education program and technological improvements in the office. Ethan has presented at numerous state and national child support conferences on such topics as Contempt, Modification, Performance Improvement, Office Management, Technology, Outreach and Leadership. Ethan has been a member of NCSEA since October 2012 and became more involved when NCSEA rebranded the annual conference. He has served on the Leadership Symposium Planning Committee since 2015. Currently Ethan is the Leadership Symposium Planning Committee Co-Chairperson for 2018. He also served on the Nominating Committee in 2016-2017 and currently serves on the Finance Committee for 2018. Ethan has served Indiana on the INvest Stakeholder Committee to modernize Indiana s child support system since October 2012. Ethan was chosen by State CSB and the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney s Council to serve on the federal feasibility travel team in 2013. He has served on the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney s Council from October 2012 to present and served as Chairperson for the 2015-2017 term. IPAC has awarded him twice for service to IPAC for his work on the federal feasibility study and for presentations to newly elected prosecutors. Ethan continues to serve CSB and IPAC as a reviewer and scorer for INvest s various RFP projects.
Why are you running for the NCSEA Board of Directors I am running because NCSEA has been critical to my development as a leader and to St. Joseph County s continued improvement and I would like to give back to the association by helping others in the ways it has helped me. I believe very strongly in the goals of NCSEA to provide professional development opportunities and advocate for the program to support children and families. I am a huge proponent of the child support program because I am a child of the program. At various times in my childhood both of my parents paid child support and when I was very little the support my dad paid was often the only income we had in the house some weeks. I believe that I have developed a skill set over the past 5 years as a county child support director that will be a benefit to the NCSEA board. I have enjoyed my time working on committees for NCSEA and believe I will be a benefit to NCSEA by expanding my involvement. I understand the difficulties of operating at the county level and believe I can bring that perspective to the board along with a working knowledge of how well our vendor community has been able to support state and local agencies.
How will you contribute to help NCSEA shape the future of child support? I will continue to take an active role on committees and at the leadership symposium and policy forum. I will utilize my platform in the legal community to reach out to judges and judicial officers to expand their participation in our agency. I will assist in advocating for child support programs and draw on my experience of working on legislation in Indiana and working with local elected officials on budgetary issues to promote the program wherever NCSEA can assist. I will present on our program on behalf of NCSEA whenever I am able to do so. I would like to write more articles for the communique on community issues to promote the future shape of the program, including leadership programs, community outreach and agency succession planning.
What will you do to help mentor and develop future leaders through NCSEA? I have a passion for leadership development. I am committed to developing leaders in my office. I believe if we develop leaders then the entire program is better. I would like our staff and professionals to continue to develop transferrable skills that would help them in my agency or somewhere else. I would like to be a strong voice for new child support attorneys for career advice and mentoring. I believed that by strengthening everyone in the community we strengthen the overall program. I believe I am still on my leadership journey and would like to continue and expand my own skills so I may use them to help others.
How will you help promote NCSEA to the child support community and public? I will take every opportunity to include my role on the board in my biography when I present and attend events. I will support and promote NCSEA and all my social media platforms. I will promote NCSEA to the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney s Council and our State Child Support Bureau for membership, conference and web talk participation. When I do speak to public groups I will included NCSEA as a resource they could reach out to for more information about the program. I will encourage the Judges handling child support cases to consider attending and presenting at NCSEA events.
Which specific child support issues interest you the most? The most specific issue that is of interest to me is continuing to impress how we deliver consistent and reliable child support payments to the families we serve. A caseworker in our office once said she was proud to have worked here as we improved our current collections because when she started here the odds of whether a custodial parent would get full support was worse than a coin flip. Being able to continue to improve the current collections for all our offices is of utmost interest to me. Other issues I am passionate about are improving the way we provide services to the people we serve and to do so in a way that is more tailored to reach them. I am also interested in continue to grow and develop leaders in the community so that my time in this community leaves a legacy of the future leaders in my wake. Lastly, I remain very interested in developing how we can match parents with employment services so that non-paying or low paying cases can become full paying cases through income withholding.