Trenny Stovall is a visionary leader who has dedicated her career to organizations and professionals committed to leveling the playing field for disadvantaged populations and communities.  For nearly two decades Stovall served as director of Georgia’s largest legal advocacy program for abused and neglected children.  Stovall structured and led the organization through the settlement of the landmark federal class action lawsuit, Kenny A. vs. Perdue which established national practice standards for the representation of child-clients in abuse cases.  Under Stovall’s leadership, thousands of vulnerable children were rehabilitated and found permanent and stable homes.  

 

Stovall’s investment in the professional development of public servants has seeded the child welfare law and social justice fields with influencers who now serve as judges, law school professors, agency heads and nonprofit, state and national system leaders.  Under Stovall’s tutelage, nearly 200 fellows and interns gained valuable litigation and advocacy skills while defining careers that ignited their passions and made positive social change. 

 

Stovall has also built a significant body of work in international leadership development and advocacy.  She created and currently facilitates the Women’s Empowerment and Leadership program for the Washington-Mandela Young African Leaders Initiative’s (YALI) Georgia State University cohort. The YALI Fellowship is a competitive and prestigious international effort sponsored by the U.S. State Department that invites emerging leaders from across the African continent to study leadership principles in the United States.  Stovall also served as planning committee member and facilitator for the 2015 and 2017 International Conferences on the Legal Rights of Street Children in London, England and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Stovall collaborated with leaders from around the world to develop and propose draft comments to the United Nation’s Committee on the Child for international legal standards for the treatment of street-connected children. 

 

Stovall has worked across sectors enlisting community and corporate partners to remove barriers and provide opportunities so that disadvantaged families could thrive.  In 2019, she coordinated a collaboration between DeKalb County Government and the United Way of Greater Atlanta to utilize social indicators of health to improved community well-being outcomes for disadvantaged citizens.  Stovall also serves on the board of Solomon’s Temple Foundation, Atlanta’s only long-term transformational program exclusively serving homeless women with children.

 

A graduate of Emory University School of Law, Stovall is an Annie E. Casey Family & Children Fellow and the 2018 recipient of the Jeff Bramlett Children’s Champion Award from Children’s Rights, a national impact litigation advocacy organization.  Stovall has also held leadership roles with the American Bar Association as a Litigation Committee Working Group member for the Child’s Right to Counsel subcommittee and Emory University School of Law’s Barton Child Law and Policy Center’s advisory council.