Charles Wilson, MSSW

Executive Director

Chadwick Center, Rady Children's Hospital

General Sessions - Moderator

Charles Wilson, MSSW, is the Executive Director of the Chadwick Center for Children and Families and the Sam and Rose Stein Endowed Chair in Child Protection at Children's Hospital-San Diego where he oversees a large multi-service child and family maltreatment organization providing prevention, intervention, medical assessment, and trauma treatment services along with professional education, and research. Wilson serves as the director of the California Child Welfare Clearinghouse on Evidenced Based Practice under contract with the state Department of Social Services. He co-chairs the Systems Integration Work Group, the Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Breakthrough Series, and the Kauffman Best Practices Task Force for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and serves on the Board of the California Chapter of the National Children’s Alliance.  He also served as chair of the California State Prevention Advisory Committee, (co-chair) the San Diego Child Protection Team, and the (co-chair) California State Child Neglect Advisory Committee. 

Mr. Wilson was formerly the Executive Director of the National Children's Advocacy Center in Huntsville, AL.  There he oversaw the clinical and prevention programs, the Southern Regional Children's Advocacy Center, the national training services that include the National CAC Academy and the National Symposium on Child Sexual Abuse, and acted as a consultant in support of the Madison County Multidisciplinary Investigative Team. Mr. Wilson served in a variety of roles in public child protection, from a front line worker in Florida and Tennessee in the 1970's, to the State Child Welfare Director in Tennessee (1982-1995). He is past President of the American Professional Society on Abuse of Children and past Vice President of the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators.  Mr. Wilson is an APSAC Advisor, an Associate Editor of the journal Child Maltreatment, a member of the Board of Directors of the California Consortium of MDICs, the past Vice President of the Alabama Network of CACs, and a past ex-officio board member for National Children's Alliance. He co-chaired the APSAC guideline committees on investigative interviewing and on family preservation and is the author or co-author of numerous publications, articles, book chapters, as well as, the book The Uneasy Alliance; The Team Investigation of Child Sexual Abuse.