Melanie Garrett, LCSW
Early Childhood Fellow
Melanie Garrett comes to HealthConnect One through the Illinois Early Childhood Fellows Program, which prepares new leaders to strengthen the field of early childhood policy and systems building in Illinois. Melanie supports HC One's advocacy work on both the state and federal levels.
Melanie has worked as a social worker in health care settings and community based agencies, including the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital and Mt. Sinai Hospital. She also supervised a Healthy Start Program on the southside of Chicago, where she worked with families and newborns. “In engaging with new parents," she says, "I have found that many have feelings of worry, guilt and fear, wanting to give their children a better environment, but lacking the resources to do so. I have decided to move away from day-to-day interventions and work to expand services vulnerable families can access to improve their lives.”
Ms. Garrett has an AM from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, and a BA from Lafayette College. She studied in the infant mental health certificate program at Erikson Institute, and is committed to improving maternal and child health equity -- with a special passion for the prenatal-to-3 population.
