Congratulations Melissa Colangelo, National Outstanding Legal Advocate Awardee

The National Association of Counsel for Children honored Children’s Law Center’s long-time Appellate Director Melissa Colangelo as its Outstanding Legal Advocate of 2025. The award is presented to individuals demonstrating excellence in legal or policy advocacy through their career in child welfare and who have significantly elevated standards of child welfare practice in their community.

The appellate work Melissa leads has shaped DC child welfare law for the better – including advocating for sufficient due process for our clients and their families by moving proceedings away from reliance on assumptions and toward a current, evidence-based understanding of harms facing children.

The NACC recognized not only the direct impact of her work for DC children and families but also Melissa’s efforts to expand this focus on rigorous, fair, and individualized decision-making across the country –   partnering with other legal services organizations to strengthen appellate strategies around systemic issues such as preventing children from unnecessarily being removed from their families.

In her introduction, NACC Chief Executive Officer Kim Dvorchak spoke of Melissa’s impact:

“Since starting at the Children’s Law Center in 2011, Melissa has worked tirelessly to improve the course of child welfare law in DC – and increasingly influences appellate practice in our field across the country.”

She went on to highlight how Melissa has grown Children’s Law Center’s appellate practice, developed and delivered trainings nationally, teaches at George Washington University Law School, and has served as a mentor and coach for countless other lawyers.

“Melissa Colangelo embodies the very best of the vital, often-unsung work of appellate law that shapes precedent—and the lives of children—for the better.”

During her acceptance speech at NACC’s National Child Welfare Law Conference, Melissa spoke to the impact the entire Children’s Law Center team has had in pursuing better outcomes for children and the importance of collaboration and courage given the moment we’re in:

“It’s a field that can be challenging on the best of days, and these are not the best of days… Just fighting for the basic dignity and humanity our clients deserve like any other litigant? That can now appear almost radical. And with foundational legal principles more uncertain than ever, it can seem like justice isn’t just delayed, it’s disappearing.    

But there’s power in being an underdog. …And like other underdogs, we may be underestimated. But we know that through collective action, we are greater than the sum of our parts – as evidenced by the people and idea-sharing [across this community].”

She urged the entire community to remember that “family law is constitutional law and the stakes are simply too great to cut corners or fall back on assumptions.”

Read Melissa’s speech here or watch it below: