Tom Rawlings brings 30 years of legal experience in juvenile justice and child protection to YSO Academy. He practices law at Chalmers Adams Backer & Wallen in Atlanta. He earned his B.A. from Duke University and his J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law. He later earned a Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University in 2017. He is certified by the National Association of Counsel for Children as a Child Welfare Law Specialist.
Tom served as director of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services and director of the Georgia Office of the Child Advocate. He was also the first full-time juvenile court judge in Georgia's Middle Judicial Circuit. There, he oversaw juvenile justice cases in five counties. He also served as the Guatemala country director for International Justice Mission. There, he built and led a team of Guatemalan professionals who worked with prosecutors and courts to protect child sexual abuse victims and train child abuse professionals. He has trained child welfare, justice, and human rights professionals across the United States, Armenia, Romania, and Thailand.
Tom is a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Law. He received the Harold K. Ables Award from the Georgia Juvenile Services Association in 2013. He serves on the boards of Connections Homes and Wellroot Family Services. He also leads the Safeguarding Committee for Kids Alive International's board. He chaired the Washington County, Georgia Board of Education from 2015 to 2018.
Tom and his co-author, Debbie Ausburn, have written about best practices they have learned from their life experiences and their clients in their book, "Protecting Other People's Children: 120 Days to a Strong Child Protection Policy."
Tom's courses draw on his legal experience. They are educational in nature and do not constitute legal advice.
"I've spent my career inside the systems that decide what happens to vulnerable children and families. In these courses, I want to give you that same clear-eyed view. Good decisions made before a crisis are worth far more than good decisions made during one."
