Connect

This is the latest installment in our Connect article series “Hope at Work” — showcasing inspiring stories about how our team members contribute to UVA Health’s 10-year strategic plan: “One Future Together Health and Hope for All.” No matter where you work, you have an opportunity to inspire hope in others. These stories show how:

Voice of the Child 

While working with a community partner to write a Connect article on UVA Health grants in 2024, Debbie Fleischer, Communications Strategist, was moved to make a big change in her life outside of work. Her story was centered on Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), a nonprofit organization with nationwide programs that help children facing abuse and neglect, and her journalistic process fostered a connection between her own personal values and goals and CASA’s mission — so much so that she has recently become a CASA volunteer herself!

The court-appointed special advocate is the voice of the child in court, helping to ensure social, mental, and physical needs are met. It is challenging, arduous work, but the effort undoubtedly is worthwhile and rewarding. 

Patience, Dedication, and Improving Lives 

As part of her research while writing the story, Debbie worked with Linda Krieg, Executive Director, CASA Children’s Intervention Services in Manassas, Virginia. Krieg’s admirable work and the impact it has had on countless children took center stage in Debbie’s narrative, and the inspiration and hope she found through Krieg’s efforts shows how much Debbie cares about advocating for others and giving children a voice.  

Contacting the local chapter, Debbie learned the extensive training program had just ended and the next evening classes would happen the following year. When CASA reached back out to Debbie a year later, she learned that the courts had 74 children who needed an advocate. Each case lasts approximately 18 months to a year for a child in the foster system. Hearing the intense demand, she filed an application immediately and began the interview process. 

Once accepted to the training program, which consisted of two evenings a week for three hours a class throughout the month of October, she learned how to be an advocate. The training took roughly 42 hours of classes coupled with reading a former case. In November 2025, accompanied by her daughter, Debbie attended family court to be sworn in as an advocate alongside her classmates, committing to at least two years of work on a case, averaging 10 to 15 hours a month.  

“The swearing in was overwhelming,” Debbie recalls. “The judge and CASA president both emphasized to the class that we would be the only constant in a child's scariest time in their young life. They further detailed why the courts rely so heavily on our unbiased reports and recommendations. To have the opportunity to give that sort of empathy to another human being and help to improve their lives is a gift.”  

Family Ties and Constant Support

CASA volunteers are responsible for visiting the child they are paired with at least once a month. In addition to seeing the child, they gather information about the child from their doctors, therapists, social workers, teachers, lawyers, caretakers, parents, and others involved in their well-being. The goal is to be a constant in the child’s life when nothing else is. After getting to know them, the advocate is then responsible for writing a detailed report for the court and appearing at each visit with the child.  

Her communications work with UVA Health has helped develop the skills in research, investigation, and collaboration needed for this endeavor, and, alongside the connections to her career, her personal life also connected her with this mission.

Debbie’s daughter works very closely with CASA advocates at her job for People Places; as a family consultant, she supports the foster family and the child in a variety of ways. Debbie’s daughter sings the praises of CASA volunteers for what they mean to a child in the foster system, and Debbie’s new volunteering role gives the duo the opportunity to support one another.  

Community Connections In and Out of the Workplace 

This kind of care has been, and continues to be, reflected in Debbie’s work with UVA Community Health’s Community Engagement team, which creates opportunities and partnerships between our medical centers and the communities we serve, hosting events and providing education and resources to help ensure we meet the needs outlined in our Community Health Needs Assessment.  

Working alongside this team, Debbie combines her marketing experience with her passion for helping others by promoting these efforts and making sure people are aware of the opportunities and partnerships available to them through UVA Health.  

The way that Debbie’s experiences with UVA Health inspire her to dedicate so much of her energy to helping others on her own time reflects the impact our work, partnerships, and care have in clinical settings and roles and beyond them. Like Debbie, so many of our team members act in ways that model our ASPIRE values of accountability, stewardship, professionalism, integrity, respect, and empathy, and enact radical compassion through large endeavors and in their day-to-day interactions.