MEET THE STAFF

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Founder of Divine Youth Services

Julissa Rowe is the Founder and Executive Director of Divine Youth Services Residential Treatment Center (RTC), a program born from her own lived experience in the foster care system. Having grown up in foster care alongside her siblings, Julissa understands firsthand the challenges, uncertainty, and emotional pain that many youth in care face every day.

Her journey from foster youth to founder has fueled a lifelong passion for advocacy, healing, and hope. Julissa created Divine Youth Services with a simple but powerful mission — to provide a safe, nurturing, and empowering environment where youth can rebuild their confidence, learn life skills, and experience the stability every child deserves.

Through Divine Youth Services RTC, Julissa leads with empathy and purpose, ensuring that every young person who walks through the doors is seen, heard, and supported. Her trauma-informed approach focuses on healing through compassion, consistency, and connection — principles she believes are essential to helping youth overcome adversity and thrive.

Julissa’s vision is to break generational cycles by equipping youth with the tools and emotional resilience to build bright, independent futures. Her story is one of perseverance, faith, and the unwavering belief that with the right support, every young person can rise above their past and step into their purpose.

Co-Founder of Divine Youth Services

Vanessa Munoz brings a wealth of experience in residential care management, having successfully overseen assisted living operations across multiple regions. She possesses exceptional intelligence, strategic insight, and a deep understanding of program administration, regulatory compliance, and care delivery optimization. Her expertise includes care management, care coordination, and ensuring measurable outcomes, making her a key contributor to high-quality, individualized residential care.

In her role as Managing Member for the RTC, Vanessa leverages her experience to facilitate operational excellence, staff development, and program fidelity, ensuring that structured routines, behavioral interventions, and resilience-building programs are delivered consistently and effectively.

Additionally, as an active church leader & ministry church director, she brings strong community engagement, mentorship, and ethical leadership skills, enhancing the RTC's capacity to build supportive networks and positive role models for system-placed youth. Her ability to translate complex care requirements into actionable operational strategies ensures the RTC functions efficiently while maintaining a behavior-first, outcomes-driven approach.

Treatment Director for Divine Youth Services

Akiya is originally from Topeka, Kansas, and brings over five years of experience in the mental health and case management field. 

Her professional background includes supporting individuals and families through a variety of behavioral health challenges, providing advocacy, resource coordination, and goal-oriented care. She believes in creating a supportive, compassionate environment where clients feel empowered to make meaningful changes in their lives.

She is currently pursuing her Licensed Professional Counselor Associate (LPC-A) licensure in Texas to further expand her ability to provide therapeutic services. Akiya's approach integrates evidence-based practices with a person-centered perspective, emphasizing respect, empathy, and collaboration.

Outside of her professional work, she is a proud parent of two and values time spent with family, learning, and personal growth.

Miguel Gonzalez is an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist and MBA with extensive experience managing multiple operations across the Post-Acute Care Continuum (PACC), including skilled nursing facilities, rehabilitation centers, and managed hospital systems. He has a proven track record in operational excellence, workforce optimization, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance, enabling high-performance care across complex, multi-site environments.

Miguel applies his expertise to behavior-first, resilience-driven residential care for system-placed youth. He oversees the implementation of case management deliverables, including individualized care planning, progress tracking, discharge coordination, and collaboration with referral agencies. By integrating operational efficiency with trauma-informed practices, he ensures that licensed clinicians and trained non-licensed staff can deliver proactive behavioral interventions, incident prevention, skill-building programs, and measurable outcomes, positioning the RTC as an innovative, scalable, and results-focused model for youth residential care. He will also ensure to promote I/O principles for youth workforce development.

Licensed Child Care Administrator Divine Youth Services 

James is a licensed Childcare Administrator with extensive experience in managing complex residential programs and multi-site operations. Over his career, he has developed deep expertise in program logistics, workforce optimization, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency, ensuring safe and high-quality care in residential settings.

As Operations Director for RTC, Jim oversees daily operations, staff scheduling, facilities management, and the implementation of structured routines and safety protocols. He ensures that behavioral interventions and skill-building programs are executed with fidelity, aligning operational workflows with clinical oversight and programmatic goals. Jim's strategic expertise in resource allocation, process optimization, and quality assurance allows the RTC to function smoothly, maintain regulatory compliance, and deliver consistent, measurable outcomes for system-placed youth.