Carolyn Allshouse

Carolyn is the Executive Director of Family Voices of Minnesota, a state-wide, non-profit organization, and the Family Voices state affiliate organization and member of the Parent-to-Parent USA alliance. Family Voices of Minnesota provides families support, information and tools to navigate the health care system, make informed decisions, and build partnerships.

Over the past thirty years Carolyn has coordinated several Federal Maternal Child Health Bureau grants including the Family-to-Family Health Information Center grant, and a recently completed grant focused on studying the efficacy and outcomes of parent-to-parent peer support. She has contributed to several quality improvement projects including the National Hospital Association’s CARE Award, the Minnesota Medical Home Learning Collaborative at the Minnesota Department of Health from 2006-2009 and the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention quality improvement learning collaborative from 2009-2010.

Carolyn has been a parent leader in the family-centered care movement in Minnesota since the late 1980s, she was a family advocate at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota starting a family-centered care training program for medical school students and residents there and was a founding member of the first family advisory committee at a children’s hospital in Minnesota.

Carolyn has written and contributed to a number of publications and commentaries for families and professionals about family-centered care and parent/professional collaboration, including: Working with Doctors, Speaking Up For Your Child and The Importance of the Family Voice in Quality Measure Development for Children’s Health Care. Carolyn is the parent of four children; her youngest son was born with complex health care needs.