In Movement: 7 Questions with Emily Perry, MSW | Susie’s Place | Indiana
October 7, 2025
Welcome to In Movement! In this segment of our blog, we interview thought leaders from within our own organizations – from CACs and MDTs and partner agencies – to gain insight into how they have furthered the movement, and how the movement has changed them. We look forward to benefiting from the lessons they’ve learned, the challenges they’ve faced, and the future they envision for themselves, our centers and teams, and the children and families we serve.
Emily Perry is the Executive Director – and the Founder – of Susie’s Place Child Advocacy Centers, which is not one but three centers, located in Avon, Bloomington, and Terre Haute, Indiana. We asked her to take a moment to reflect on her extraordinary career over the last 25+ years and share her wisdom and insights with us.
Why did you choose this as a career?
I’m not so sure I chose it as it chose me! My mother started a nonprofit in Indianapolis in the 1980s called the Indianapolis Institute for Families, which provided mental health services to post-adoptive families and children. So I grew up with an incredible mentor and role model – a strong, passionate, brilliant leader of a nonprofit serving children and families, many of whom were struggling with the aftermath of child abuse.
I approached the work from a different angle – I interned in the Philadelphia Public Defender’s Child Advocacy Unit and through that was exposed to the great work of the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance. Then I moved across the country to Portland, Oregon, where I worked in child protective services and was able to learn more about the child advocacy center movement through the work of CARES NW. Finally, I moved back to Indiana – and I was shocked by how much progress and innovation I’d seen at a place like CARES NW that just wasn’t happening here in Indiana. So it became my mission to give those same advantages to the children in my community.
I earned my Master’s degree in Social Work in 2005 from Indiana University, and immediately began the development of Susie’s Place which was founded in 2008. We opened our first center in 2009, our second center in 2011, and our third center in 2017.
So I guess you could say that helping child victims heal and recover is in my DNA – it’s always been my passion, and I’m not done yet!
What is something interesting that you have learned recently?
I would say it is less learning than embracing the unique role that I’ve been fortunate enough to have of creating, teaching, mentoring, and leading the next generation of leaders. They will take this movement to the next level – I’m not exactly sure what that will be, but I am so excited to find out, and so grateful that I got to experience and learn all I have and then pass it along to the next set of leaders.
What is a challenge that you and your colleagues feel proud of solving?
In 2024, the CACs in Indiana were successful in getting child advocacy centers recognized and codified in statute. There are a handful of us who have worked long and hard on this. That we were finally able to carry it across the finish line, and see it come to fruition is huge! We’re ensuring a future of hope and healing for our communities.
What about your work inspires you and keeps you going?
It’s always the kids. Even after all these years, I still conduct forensic interviews. And what I’ve found is that there are moments when a child chooses to trust me with their experience and I know it’s the end of the bad and the beginning of the good. It’s a palpable shift in energy. I feel blessed to be the one who gets to shepherd a child through the process to get to that moment – because we can both see better days ahead. We’ve interviewed over 17,000 kids at Susie’s Place – and I still get emotional when I think about this.
What is the biggest need for kids you think we can meet in the next 5 years?
The landscape has shifted for kids and families in the current climate in America. There’s an ever-widening gap between what we hope for them and what is attainable. So I like to focus on what we can achieve. Here in Indiana, we are on a path to have prevention education available in every school in the state within the next five years. For us, that’s a giant step forward, and a great start toward bigger goals.
What do you think the ideal future looks like for kids?
A world in which every child can say that they feel loved and safe in their family – loved in the purest, truest, most innocent sense of the word.
Finally, what is next for you?
I have lots of ideas of what might be next – after 25+ years in the field, there are so many possibilities! But what I feel most drawn to is finding a way in which I can have the most impact and provide the most support to the next generation of leaders in this field. I want to make sure this movement is in the best position it can be for success for the next 25 years, and the next 25 beyond that, and so on. I’m not sure what that role looks like yet, but I know I will figure it out.
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