MEET KELLY MYHLS:
Kelly Myhls is one of our amazing attorneys. She is the director of our Mediation program. In that role, she also serves as an attorney mediator who helps children, who have been placed in the child welfare system due to abuse and/or neglect, secure a safe and loving home.
But that was not her original career plan. What changed?
She shares a touching story of how a young girl in a youth shelter changed the trajectory of her career pursuits while she was still in college. And that eventually led her to Child Advocates.
We could not be more fortunate to have her on our team:
WORDS FROM KELLY:
When I was a senior in college, I had the good fortune to work at a local youth shelter. The shelter was designed to provide very short-term care for children who needed it, often including minor children placed under the legal protection and custody of the government because their parents are absent, unfit, or unable to care for them safely. The shelter also took in runaways and other children who had minor status offenses. I learned more than I can say during my time there.
I had long known that I wanted to work with children in some capacity. I was majoring in Psychology and Criminal Justice and minoring in Sociology. And I was debating whether it would be better to continue my training and become a clinical therapist who treated children, or whether I should apply to law school and find a way to advocate for children in a courtroom setting.
Into my decision-making process walked a wonderful, high school-aged, young woman. Unlike most of the children we served, she stayed at the youth shelter for months, and I got to know her well. She was intelligent, talented, and had so much promise. Because it was the 80s, and she wanted to appear tough, she had a carefully curated Goth style.
She came to trust the staff as we grew to trust her. She used her knowledge of our routine to welcome new children when they arrived and help them acclimate to life at the shelter.
She had close relationships with her friends at school, so rather than embarrassing her by driving up to her school in the shelter van, we broke the rules by dropping her off and picking her up a block or so away.
Periodically someone from DCS (Department of Child Services), which leads and oversees the child welfare system in Indiana, would pick her up, take her to court, and return her to us.
Through tears she told me how hard it was to repeatedly walk into that courtroom to find that her parents hadn’t come to court. She was convinced that they didn’t want her.
The day came when she was finally leaving the shelter. After months of waiting she learned that, not only was she not going home, she was also being moved out of the college town she lived in and away from her support system.
She was going to a home in a small rural community where her “goth” self would stand out like a sore thumb.
I was so disappointed by a system that let her down in just about every way imaginable.
Looking at her situation, I realized that if I was her therapist I could help her cope with her history of trauma and with her situation, but I probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to change her circumstances.
If I was an attorney working on her case, I might have the opportunity to watch out for her and to advocate for the system to do better.
So, In the fall of 1990, I started law school. I wish I knew what happened to her, and I wish I could tell her what a difference she made in my life. I wish she knew that she inspired me to dedicate my professional life to trying to improve the lives of children in circumstances like hers.
Footnote:
For more than 30 years now, Kelly has used her law degree to advocate for thousands of children in the child welfare system across Indiana. They are children and youth who have faced abuse or neglect in the place they called home, and they are some of the most vulnerable children in our nation.
As an attorney mediator and the director of our Mediation services, she helps resolve disputes or conflicts between all parties involved in children’s lives. That can help children leave the child welfare system and find a safe, secure, and loving home sooner.
Mediation can prevent long court trials which are often held to determine a child’s future.
For children, that means Kelly is fulfilling her purpose. She is helping the system do better for them. And as a child advocate, she fights every day for what she knows they deserve.
In 2025 alone, Kelly and her small team mediated 1477 child welfare cases.
And Kelly’s work was inspired by a young girl whose life and future touched her so deeply that she chose a new career path to help more children facing similar circumstances.
At Child Advocates, we are grateful to have Kelly as one of our attorneys and leaders. Her work is transforming children’s lives and helping build each of them a better future.
