On December 1st, 2022, colleagues, friends, and family gathered to celebrate the retirement of John McMahon. It was a wonderful event full of tributes to John’s long career at UNC Chapel Hill. Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson spoke to John’s incredible contributions to child welfare in NC during his tenure. John, who is a graduate from the University of North Carolina, has dedicated 30 years of his career to improving the lives of children and families across our state through his work at the Family and Children’s Resource Program (FCRP), part of the UNC Chapel Hill, School of Social Work.
One of John’s roles at FCRP was as editor of many publications, including Fostering Perspectives. For over 25 years, John facilitated an advisory group with community stakeholders, families, and youth with lived experience to plan, write, and edit this publication. Fostering Perspectives is read statewide and frequently cited by the Federal Children’s Bureau, national resource centers, and academic and advocacy groups across the country.
John also led the effort to help NC Division of Social Services launch an online learning portal for resource parents, www.fosteringNC.org. John’s vision of free, easily accessible, high-quality support and training for all of North Carolina’s resource parents is now a reality. The site features free on- demand courses, webinar recordings, and videos about critical topics for resource parents. It also provides answers to FAQs and resources.
In the 30 years John has worked at FCRP, he has participated in countless projects that benefit the public. John’s work has impacted thousands of resource parents, social workers, and agency leaders who have had the pleasure of working with him. He is admired and appreciated not only by his colleagues at FCRP but also by national, state, and local partners. He is unfailingly kind, helpful, and reliable, and as such, we believe John epitomizes the spirit of engagement and service of our public university.
Readers from around the state and across the country frequently write to thank and commend John McMahon for the articles in Fostering Perspectives as well as for the information and courses provided in FosteringNC.org.
While John will be truly missed, we are thankful for all he has done for children and families in NC. At the end of the evening on December 1st, John was inducted into the “Order of the Long Leaf Pine” by the governor of NC, Roy Cooper. This is the highest honor possible given for service in NC and no one is more deserving of this recognition than John McMahon.
More testimonials about John’s Work
Thank you for all your hard work, dedication, and such professional publication [Fostering Perspectives]
Foster Parent Reader
Whenever I traveled out of state or convened with other jurisdictional partners and introduced myself as being from NC, often the first words from counterparts in adoption and foster care in other states was “we love Fostering Perspectives. We send it to our resource parents and use it in our state whenever possible.” I do not know that there is a higher compliment! Thank you to John for providing such amazing leadership and organization. I know it has been a labor of love
Adoption Facilitator
Soon after deployment on www.FosteringNC.org of the new online course Grief: How Resource Parents Can Cope and Learn from Loss, John McMahon received the following email “Thank you so much for this training on grief! My husband and I have been foster parents for 15 years and this is the first time I have ever seen any mention of addressing grief when a child moves
Foster Parent
