Sheila A. Pires was a national leader in children’s behavioral health and public systems who authored the seminal guidebook in the field on children’s systems of care, Building Systems of Care: A Primer. She is credited with training a generation of leaders and policymakers across the U.S. in effective, responsive, and sustainable service design and delivery for children involved with public systems, particularly young people who experience foster care and those who receive services through Medicaid.

An experienced public servant with experience working in federal and DC government, Sheila wrote Building Systems of Care: A Primer after seeing that the field of children’s behavioral health needed a roadmap for conceptualizing and designing quality public child- and family-serving systems. This served as the foundation for trainings, consultation, and technical assistance that she provided across the country. She published reports, white papers, and journal articles, including serving as lead author on Children’s Faces of Medicaid: Data Analysis Series, and presented her expertise at convenings large and small. Sheila worked tirelessly to help states and communities reimagine their designs of home- and community-based services for children with complex needs and their families, and helped them integrate new opportunities, including from the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the Family First Prevention Services Act. Read the full memorial.