Emily C. Wengrovius is a human services policy expert with over 15 years of experience at the federal and state levels. She is the President and Founder of Courageous Policy Consulting, LLC, providing policy expertise, strategizing, and facilitation services. In addition to founding Courageous Policy Consulting, LLC, Emily held four roles with the Colorado Department of Human Services and the Colorado Department of Early Childhood as well as policy roles in Washington, DC.

She currently serves as the Program Manager for the Emerging and Expanding Child Care grant and the Community Innovation and Resilience for Care and Learning Equity (CIRCLE) programs at the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. In her most recent role with the Colorado Department of Human Services, she served as the Lead Policy Advisor for the Colorado Division of Child Support Services. In this role, she served as the expert on child support order establishment, modification, paternity, emancipation, the guidelines, and bankruptcy. Additionally, Emily facilitated a cross-program workgroup exploring eliminating the automatic referral between Child Welfare and Child Support Services. This workgroup was successful at eliminating the automatic referral between child welfare and child support and because of this, in addition to the prevention of the establishment of child support debt orders, over 3,250 parents had their child support cases closed with over $8.7 million in arrears owed to the state written off/forgiven. 

Emily was a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Coordinator for Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood, managing federal subcontracts. Emily provided technical assistance to Colorado’s Early Childhood Councils, supporting the launch and implementation of a statewide QRIS and acting as a liaison between at the intersection of child care and health. As a County Liaison, Emily visited over 45 of Colorado’s 64 counties, building relationships with the county human services directors and county commissioners based on trust, respect, and integrity. Prior to returning to Colorado in 2013, she was the Senior Policy Specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington DC, serving in an intergovernmental role. She lobbied Congress and the Administration on policies related to Child Care, Child Nutrition, Child Welfare, Child Support, Immigration, the Social Services Block Grant, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the Women, Infants, and Children Program. Emily was the Legislative Analyst at the American Public Human Services Association, supporting the National Association of Program Information and Performance Management. Prior to attending graduate school, she was the case manager of a boutique law firm specializing in bankruptcy and family law in Greenwood Village, Colorado. The firm had over 80 active cases at any given time.  Emily has a Master of Science in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of the South. In addition to Colorado, Washington, DC, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Philadelphia, she’s lived abroad as a toddler in Zomba, Malawi, and as an adult in Skopje, Republic of Northern Macedonia.

She currently serves on the Board of Healthy Child Care Colorado and is the parent chair of her sons’ school School Accountability Committee.