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Carey Casey

Carey Casey is Chief Executive Officer of the Kansas City-based National Center for Fathering and author of the book Championship Fathering: How to Win at Being a Dad (2009). 

Through his work across the country, Casey has earned a reputation as a dynamic communicator, especially on the topic of men being good fathers. He’s known as a compassionate ambassador, particularly within the American sports community.

Carey serves on the White House Task Force on Fatherhood and Healthy Families. He is also a member of the executive committee of the National Fatherhood Leaders Group, which promotes responsible fatherhood policy, research, advocacy and practice. 

Casey joined the Center after 18 years in various roles with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, including executive director of the OneWay2Play program, the first-ever National Urban director and president of the FCA Foundation. His career has also included serving as chaplain at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys under Hall of Fame Coach Tom Landry, and chaplain for the Kansas City Chiefs. He continues to speak on life issues for numerous professional and college sports teams across America.

Carey served for five years as co-pastor of Lawndale Community Church -- the inner-city church in Chicago’s west side recognized by the George H. W. Bush Points of Light Foundation. At Lawndale, Carey helped empower the community with health care, housing, education and economic growth.

Carey has also served as a lecturer at the World Congress on Sports, the college football Senior Bowl, the National Association of Basketball Coaches Convention at the Final Four, and the Super Bowl. He has been featured in many local and national publications and broadcasts, including The New York Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, Kansas City Star, Chicago Tribune, Focus on the Family’s radio broadcast and webcast, Ebony, Christianity Today, Sharing the Victory, “Fox and Friends,” ESPN.com, ESPN’s “Quite Frankly” with Stephen A. Smith, “The Hour of Power” with Dr. Robert Schuller, and Leadership Magazine.

In high school, Carey played in the 1971 Virginia State Championship football game -- the game later dramatized in the award-winning movie, Remember the Titans. Carey is still friends with former Titans coach Herman Boone and many of the people portrayed in the movie.

Carey received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. As a running back he helped lead the school’s football team to the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship in 1977. Carey was inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame in his home town of Salem, VA, and was Alumnus of the Year at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College. Other honors include being listed in Who’s Who in Black America as well as being a past recipient of the Dallas NAACP Juanita Craft Award. In recognition of his work among fathers, Carey has been awarded Keys to the City in both Laurel, MS, and Jackson, MS, and a President’s Medallion by Midwestern Baptist Seminary in Kansas City.

Carey and his wife, Melanie, are parents of four children, have five grandchildren, and live in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.

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Eric Snow

Eric Snow is the National Director of WATCH D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students), a safe school initiative of the National Center for Fathering.

With extensive experience in operations management, sales, customer service, training, marketing and public relations, Eric comes to the National Center with skills perfectly suited to lead a dynamic team and to help manage and facilitate the phenomenal growth WATCH D.O.G.S. continues to enjoy.

In 1998, Eric played a key role in the very first WATCH D.O.G.S program at George Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas. He and his friend, WATCH D.O.G.S. founder Jim Moore, helped develop the program to encourage fathers and father figures to be more involved in the educational process at their kids’ school. With the goals of increasing school safety and providing positive male role models, the first WATCH D.O.G.S. program was created. Eric was instrumental in helping Jim Moore realize his vision for WATCH D.O.G.S., and is credited with giving the program its name. Eric also served on the Board of Directors for WATCH D.O.G.S for more than 5 years.

Eric’s career includes several successful ventures: President and owner of New South Directory Company, Inc., a licensed realtor and owner of New South L.L.C., Vice President of Operations for “Names and Numbers,” and Operations Manager for the Web Division of Phillips Litho Co., Inc.

Eric attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where he majored in Political Science. Eric and his wife Valerie have two children.

Lucy Bloom

Lucy serves as the Director of the Father-Daughter Summit and coordinator of the Father of the Year Essay Contest at the National Center for Fathering. She is driven by a passion to address the destructive trends of today’s youth culture by turning the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.

Prior to coming to the Center, Lucy worked as a youth specialist for 14 years, spending several years of research studying parent to teen communication and connection.

Since joining the National Center for Fathering in 2003, she has developed the National Center for Fathering Presenting Team and presented the Father-Daughter Summit, a relationship-building seminar designed for adolescent and young adult daughters and their father figures, to numerous communities across the country.

Lucy earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from William Jewell College. She and her husband enjoy raising 3 sons and live in the greater Kansas City area.

Brock Griffin

Brock Griffin is Director of Writing and Publications at the National Center for Fathering. He has been with the Center since 1991. Brock handles or helps with many of the Center’s writing and editing projects, including books, fathers.com weekly e-mails, and articles for the Center’s website and outside publications. He is also project manager for Today's Father, Carey Casey's 3-minute radio program that began in 1993 and now airs on some 600 stations worldwide. He collaborates with Carey to produce content for the program. Brock also coordinates the Center’s website, fathers.com.

He has bachelor's and master's degrees in English and creative writing from Kansas State University, where he won several fellowships and awards for his work. Brock and his wife Tara have three children and live in the Kansas City area.

Information on more of the Center's staff

Associates (Research & Training)

Ken R. Canfield, Ph.D.

Dr. Ken R. Canfield is founder of the National Center for Fathering, and served as NCF's president and CEO from 1990 through 2005. In January 2008, he accepted an appointment as Executive Director of the Boone Center for the Family at Pepperdine University.

His work has been recognized in a variety of ways: He has been a consultant to state and community officials on ways to engage and equip fathers in local programming; served as one of the founding members of former Vice President Al Gore’s private-sector “Father to Father” Initiative; and was awarded the 1993 Father of theYear by the National Congress for Men and Children.

He is the author of The Heart of a Father (Northfield Publishing, 1996, 2006), and numerous other books including the award-winning 7 Secrets of Effective Fathers (Tyndale, 1992, 2001). Canfield has been interviewed on The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s World News Tonight and numerous radio programs as an authority on fathering skills and research, as well as the negative consequences of father absence.

Canfield has written for a number of magazines both academic and popular: Psychological Reports, Educational and Psychological Measurements, ParentLife, The World & I, Parents, Today’s Better Life, New Man and Living With Children.

Canfield has done extensive study in the historical literature on fathering and current social science research data. At the Center, he created one of the largest ongoing data bases on fathering in the nation, including more than 10,000 responses from men to the 138-question Personal Fathering Profile, which Canfield developed in conjunction with a number of scholars. The Profile has been termed by authorities in the field the most comprehensive, scientifically sound tool available for a man to inventory his strengths and opportunities as a father. Canfield has led other research as well, including three national random sample polls on fathering and an ongoing National Survey of Men covering a wide variety of men’s life issues.

Canfield earned his B.A. degree in philosophy from Friends University (Wichita, KS). He has an M.C.S. degree from the University of British Columbia - Regent College (Vancouver, B.C.) and a Ph.D. in education from Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS). His dissertation reported on his innovative research on the life course of fathers.

Ken and his wife Dee have 5 children and three grandchildren.

George R. Williams

George R. Williams is a marriage and family therapist and the Executive Director of the National Center for Fathering’s Urban Father-Child Partnership. Having the conviction that every child needs the support of a dad, his life work is to support urban men to be the dads their children need. To this end, the goal of the partnership is to create a citywide father-child outreach model that results in measurable, sustainable positive outcomes for children and urban communities.

At the National Center, George is actively involved in developing and delivering fathering education and programming in various settings, including urban elementary, middle and high schools, faith communities, court programs and community fathering initiatives. His presentations feature thoughtful insights and an engaging, passionate style. George also writes and performs powerful dramatizations that illustrate the challenges of urban fathers.

George is a nationally recognized fathering expert that has spoken and taught at national conferences including the National PTA Conference, the National Welfare Reform Conference, Family Support America, National Fatherhood Summit, Annual Fathers Behind Bars Conference and the Head Start Institute on Father Involvement Conference. He served on the expert panel of the Strengthening Families with Children Born Out-Of-Wedlock research project conducted by Princeton University and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He has testified as an expert fathering witness before a Senate Subcommittee and was invited to join the National Urban League’s Commission of African American Males.

George is a contributing author to the book, Why Fathers Count and the textbook, Fundamentals of Early Childhood Education, 4th Edition. He has authored five fathering curricula including: Quenching the Father Thirst and the Coach Dads Play Book. He has appeared on national television as a spokesperson for urban fathering on CNN, FOX News, the WB and PAX TV. He has appeared in print as a “Phenomenal Father” by Ebony Magazine and in Black Enterprise and JET Magazine.

George earned his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS.) He earned his Master of Science degree from Friends University (Wichita, KS) in family therapy and is a lifetime member in Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology. He is a graduate from the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative’s ministry training program, a past president of Urban Youth Leadership and a former youth pastor for an inner-city church. He serves as the pastor of family life at Cross Point Community Church of the Nazarene. George and his wife Trudy have three boys and a daughter and live in the greater Kansas City area.

Ron Nichols

Ron served as Director of Training for the National Center for Fathering from 1995 to 2008. He designs and delivers father training workshops and presentations across the country for organizations including businesses, churches, civic groups, social service agencies, the military, hospitals and schools. He also leads trainer training seminars for the Center's programs. Ron consults with organizations and trainers on training strategy, design and delivery. Since joining NCF in 1995, he trained hundreds of trainers and thousands of fathers in NCF's highly-rated programs.

Ron's background includes over 20 years of experience in the training and development and human resources management fields. Before joining the Center, Ron spent eleven years with Hallmark Cards in corporate human resources, with various managerial assignments in the corporate training and professional staffing. Prior to Hallmark, Ron worked for Frito Lay as personnel manager for a multi-state sales division, and spent five years in personnel management with Burns and McDonnell consulting engineers. Ron attended Kansas State University, receiving degrees in Business Administration and Natural Resources Management.

Ron and his wife Candie have five children and live in Overland Park, Kansas.