Gabriel McGaughey, MSW

Gabriel McGaughey is the Director of Well-Being for Children’s Wisconsin Community Services and a founding leader of the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being (ICFW). He works to help public systems move beyond crisis response toward prevention strategies that are community-led, data-informed, and focused on long-term well-being. At ICFW, Gabriel leads technical assistance and strategy support for partners across the state and country. His work centers on helping agencies and networks build prevention infrastructure, align data with decision-making, and strengthen their ability to adapt in complex environments. He is one of the architects of Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC), a collaborative initiative focused on preventing neglect by addressing family overload and the systems that contribute to it.

Gabriel brings more than 20 years of experience in child and family services, spanning direct care, supervision, quality improvement, and executive leadership. He began his career working in group homes and prevention programs, then joined Milwaukee’s child welfare system in 2003 as a case manager. He later moved into supervisory roles and then led performance and quality improvement, where he developed dashboards and analytics tools to guide practice and policy. Before co-founding ICFW, Gabriel served as Director of Family Case Management for Children’s Wisconsin’s child welfare program, overseeing operations and strategy across child protection, foster care, and family support services. In that role, he helped establish a culture of data-driven decision-making, led the implementation of evidence-based interventions, and introduced a system-wide focus on child and family well-being.

Gabriel holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.