CSSP Welcomes New Members to Board of Directors: Lynn Braveheart and Ursula Wright

Washington, DC (August 7, 2025)—The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) welcomes two seasoned executives to its Board of Directors: Lynn Braveheart and Ursula Wright.  

“CSSP is at a pivotal moment of change,” said Leonard Burton, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for the Study of Social Policy. “Lynn and Ursula are the right type of changemakers and leaders we need within our board to help push us into that new metamorphic age. Continuing to champion our promise of a healthy and thriving democracy is paramount now more than ever. I’m confident Ursula and Lynn will bring the experience, leadership, passion, and empathy that are needed to help make this vision possible.” 

Lynn Braveheart is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. She currently serves as the ICWA Division Program Manager for the State of Minnesota Guardian ad Litem Program. Brave Heart leads statewide efforts to strengthen compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act (MIFPA), with a deep commitment to protecting the rights of Native children and honoring the vital importance of keeping families together.

Lynn’s work is profoundly influenced by her lived experience: her mother was forcibly adopted into a white home in Minnesota before the passage of ICWA, as part of the broader history of Indian child removal and assimilation. Lynn was a child of the foster care system. She experienced traditional and institutional foster care and aged out at 18. These personal and intergenerational experiences fuel her commitment to advocacy, healing, and systems change.

In March 2025, Lynn was recognized as a Distinguished Alumna by the University of Minnesota Duluth’s College of Education and Human Service Professions (CEHSP), a prestigious honor celebrating her exceptional leadership in tribal and child welfare systems. She earned her Master of Social Work from UMD as an ICWA Scholar.

Lynn brings over 25 years of experience in tribal, state, and nonprofit systems and serves on both the Minnesota American Indian Child Welfare Advisory Council and the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Advisory Council on Child Protection Reform. As a Community Organizer, Lynn worked on environmental health and housing policy initiatives in Minneapolis helping to influence the city’s inspections to include an environmental health checklist.

In 2024, the ICWA Division she leads was awarded a competitive ICWA Best Practices grant from the Children’s Bureau at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), in collaboration with the UMD Tribal Training and Certification Partnership and White Earth Nation, to research ICWA Guardian ad Litem work as an evidence-based best practice. She was also honored by the American Bar Association as a Reunification Hero. Her leadership is grounded in Indigenous values, racial justice, and healing-centered practices that elevate family preservation as a cornerstone of child well-being. 

“As a person who aged out of foster care, the child welfare system has always been an important issue to me,” said Lynn Braveheart. “I’m excited to bring my experience as a social worker, and community organizer to help right the wrongs of past injustices done to Indigenous children within the system, and to prevent those harms from repeating themselves. How CSSP champions family autonomy and wellness speaks directly to me and is the work I want to contribute to.” 

Ursula Wright is an accomplished tri-sector executive with a decades-long commitment to materially improving the academic and life outcomes of America’s children and families.

Her professional experiences include serving as a Senior Vice President at WestEd and a member of the agency’s senior leadership team. In this role, she was responsible for leading and supporting a 300+ person team focused on fulfilling a range of K-12 education needs that bridge policy, research, and educator practice. Prior to WestEd, she co-led the Education and Youth practice at FSG, a global consulting firm that focuses on social impact. In that role, she led and supported systems change and collective impact engagements. Before FSG, Ursula was a senior member of the Obama Administration where she served as the appointed deputy in the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education.

In this capacity, Ursula served as the Department’s policy lead on place-based initiatives like Promise Zones, Promise Neighborhoods, Building Neighborhood Capacity Program, and the Race to the Top – District program, which, at the time, was the nation’s largest personalized learning initiative. Ursula’s portfolio also included the federal Charter Schools Program and a host of special projects for the White House. Ursula was also an executive at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. She helped grow NAPCS from a start-up to an established advocacy organization serving millions of charter school students nationwide and more than an additional one million students on charter school waiting lists. Before transitioning to the not-for-profit sector, Ursula developed functional competencies in strategy, operations, finance, and marketing within corporate America. 

Ursula has further contributed to public education through her board service, including tenures with The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, a national non-profit organization dedicated to preparing, certifying, and supporting people who want to improve their communities by becoming a teacher, and Achievement Preparatory Academy. Ursula has also served on the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board of Montgomery County, MD, by appointment of former County Executive Isiah Leggett, and is a graduate of Leadership Montgomery (MD). 

Ursula earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College and a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She has also completed executive education coursework at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. 

“The thing that attracted me most to CSSP is the use of evidence to shape public  policy innovations,” said Ursula Wright. “CSSP has a long and significant history of doing that well and I’m excited to contribute to an organization that is steeped in a legacy of evidence, innovation, and systems transformation.”

CSSP’s Board of Directors includes:   

• Thomas Bates, Board Secretary; Partner, Insight Strategic Partners
• Manley A. Begay, Jr., tenured Professor, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff (NAU)
• Leonard Burton, President/CEO, Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP)
• Dr. Leon Caldwell, Chief Strategy and Equity Officer
• Elliott Hinkle, Board Treasurer; Founder and Principal, Unicorn Solutions, LLC
• Helly Lee, Director, Frontline Solutions
• Leticia Peguero, Board Chair; Founder, Leticia Peguero Coaching and Consulting
• Larkin W. Tackett, Board Vice Chair; Founder and Executive Advisor, MAYA Consulting
• Judge William A. Thorne, Jr., retired judge on the State of Utah Court of Appeals and in the Third District Court

Learn more about our Board of Directors. 

About CSSP. The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) works to achieve a racially, economically, and socially just society in which all children, youth, and families thrive. We translate ideas into action, promote public policies grounded in equity, and support strong and inclusive communities. We advocate with and for all children, youth, and families marginalized by public policies and institutional practices. Learn more at www.CSSP.org.