Colleen Zullo Rieger is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 30 years of experience during which she had the opportunity to grow personally and professionally while working with children, adults and their families.  Her career path includes work in child welfare, foster care/RTF, behavioral health, developmental disabilities, juvenile justice/corrections and youth/adult education.  She has contributed to her community through volunteerism in youth sports and membership in coalitions for the prevention of child abuse. In various positions, Colleen has held responsibility for operations, program/regional management, program development, fund-raising, compliance, quality improvement, training/employee development, recruitment/retention.  Consistently throughout her career Colleen maintained direct involvement with clients through the provision of service delivery.  Staying involved at all levels of intervention in the practice and business of helping others has kept her grounded in balancing complex issues faced when providing services to others.

From 2011-2022, Colleen was the lead trainer and certification point person for the Sanctuary Model within a large human services agency providing support for diverse population needs.  She educated the surrounding community on the agency’s implementation practices and contributed to other trauma informed care initiatives both within the agency and externally with stakeholders.  Colleen has enjoyed mentoring Master’s level social work students utilizing Sanctuary principles through field instruction/supervision as well as in the classroom at Marywood University.

Colleen is a social worker at heart; advocating, supporting, and empowering individuals and families with a firm foundation in the importance of honoring diversity of need and personhood.  She considers the impact of systems on individuals and actively works to engage those systems as an agent of change.   Colleen is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where she earned a Master’s degree in Social Work.  Additionally, she holds a Bachelors degree in Education and an Associates degree in Early Childhood Education.