Deborah Craig, Senior Fellow with the Forum, graduated from Illinois State University in 1974. Over many years, Deborah established herself in the youth work field from the ground up as a front line youth worker, supervisor and program director, primarily in adolescent residential treatment settings. Her career took her into work with urban, community based youth programs through the 1990’s culminating in her service as president of YouthNet of Greater Kansas City, a capacity building intermediary. Her accomplishments included developing one of the first college accredited youth work certificate programs through the Metropolitan Community Colleges system, and designing and facilitating a community process resulting in Kansas City area youth-serving agencies coming to consensus on a common set of youth program quality standards. Kansas City Youth Program Standards were ultimately piloted and adapted as Missouri Program Quality Standards.

In 1986, Deborah earned a masters degree in Counseling Education from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. She was a founding member of the Missouri AfterSchool Network (MASN) and founding co-chair of the Next Generation Youth Worker Coalition, a national movement seeking to professionalize the field of youth work. Deborah currently serves on the Board of Directors of YWCA of Wyandotte County, Kansas.