Abigail worked for seven years at Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), an organization that advocates for children in foster care, managing CASA's office at the Bronx Family Court. During this time, Abigail recruited and led a team of over 200 volunteers from throughout New York City who worked to ensure that children placed with under-resourced foster care agencies received the benefits and services they needed and deserved. It was in this role that Abigail saw first-hand the devastating impact poverty has on families and how easy it is for children and other vulnerable people to fall through cracks of the social safety nets designed to help them. 

 

At CASA, Abigail developed the resolve and skills necessary to navigate city and state agencies in order to get results for the children she served. The team of volunteers Abigail led at CASA won numerous victories for those they helped, including securing housing for children aging out of foster care, making sure foster families had the financial support they were owed, and most importantly, ensuring that hundreds of struggling families were eventually reunited.

 

Following her tenure at CASA, Abigail worked at Montefiore Hospital's Child Advocacy Center, coordinating the efforts of the Administration of Children's Services, the NYPD's Special Victims Division, the Bronx District Attorney's Office and forensic doctors to minimize additional trauma to children survivors of abuse. While at Montefiore, Abigail was appointed to serve as a student advisor, and then as an adjunct professor, at Columbia University’s School of Social Work. She continues to hold both positions, helping to train the City’s next generation of social workers.