Faculty, Fellows & Staff
Meet the Barton Center team. Barton Center faculty, fellows, and staff play a pivotal role in advancing the field of children’s rights and shaping the minds of the next generation of child advocates. Explore the profiles of our faculty, fellows, and staff to get to know us better!
Melissa Carter is the Executive Director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center. Her work focuses on the legal rights and interests of children and youth involved with the juvenile court, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems. She has represented the interests of abused, neglected, and court-involved children in policy and legislative matters at the local, state, and federal levels, contributing to the drafting and passage of dozens of pieces of legislation, and in litigation through amicus curiae briefs submitted to the Supreme Court of Georgia and Georgia Court of Appeals. She is a frequent presenter on topics of juvenile law, has testified before several legislative and administrative bodies, and her work is covered extensively by the media.
Carter earned both a BS in psychology, summa cum laude, and a JD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since law school, Professor Carter has served in various child law and policy positions, including a gubernatorial appointment as the state’s child welfare system ombudsman.
At Emory, Carter has led efforts to rewrite the state’s Juvenile Code, educated judges on various juvenile law and systemic reform issues, and advised state officials on the administration of psychotropic medications to children in foster care. She has also been appointed to statewide taskforces charged with making recommendations for improvements to the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
In addition to this work, Carter has given lectures and presentations on a wide variety of juvenile law issues around the country. She serves as a member of the board of several child advocacy nonprofit organizations, including Voices for Georgia’s Children, and sits on the advisory committee of the Supreme Court of Georgia Committee on Justice for Children. Carter directs the Barton Center’s public policy and legislative advocacy clinics and teaches Child Welfare Law and Policy.
Stephen Reba
Co-Director, Appeal for youth clinc
Stephen Reba came to Emory in 2009 as the Ford & Harrison Equal Justice Works Fellow in the Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic. During his EJW Fellowship, Reba innovated and directed a project, Appeal for Youth.
The success of that project provided a strong foundation for its further evolution into the newest clinical offering of the Barton Center. As director of the Appeal for Youth Clinic, Reba supervises law students in their appellate representation of youthful offenders in Georgia’s juvenile and criminal justice systems.
Before coming to Emory, Reba served as a staff attorney for the Supreme Court of Georgia Committee on Justice for Children, a federally funded project aimed at improving the process for civil child abuse and neglect cases. At Justice for Children, he managed the implementation of a juvenile court process system and was part of a case review effort to learn best practices for areas targeted in Georgia’s Child and Family Services Review.
Co-director, appeal for youth clinic
Christopher came to Emory in 2023 as a Senior Clinical Fellow. Christopher co-directs the Appeal For Youth Clinic with Stephen Reba, and supervises students as they support appellate representation to protect the constitutional rights of children and parents through dependency appeals.
Christopher is a Senior Director for Casey Family Programs, the nation’s largest private operating foundation focused on safely reducing the need for foster care and Building Communities of Hope. He is also an Academic Affiliate with the CHAMPS Clinic at the University of South Carolina School of Law, a pediatric medical-legal partnership. Christopher was previously a Staff Attorney for the CHAMPS Clinic and served as a consultant to several national child welfare organizations. He began his career as Managing Attorney for the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Justice for Children.
Emilie Cook
senior staff attorney
Emilie Cook joined Emory and the Barton Center in 2022 as the Preventive Legal Advocacy Fellow and now serves as Senior Staff Attorney for the Center.
As part of her work, Emilie leads the Preventive Legal Advocacy / Pre-Petition National Cohort (PLA/PP) and works with multi-disciplinary teams across the country to promote and support preventive legal advocacy and pre-petition programs that engage in the provision of high quality legal advocacy and upstream support services to promote the social determinants of health and address the effects of poverty, systemic racism, and other forms of discrimination and oppression that harm families and lead to unnecessary child welfare system involvement.
Before joining the Barton Center in 2022, Emilie spent seven years representing parents and children in dependency proceedings in rural Georgia, and served as circuit guardian ad litem for the Ocmulgee Juvenile Court and Ocmulgee Family Drug Treatment Court Panels. Emilie is a passionate proponent of preventive legal advocacy and its capacity to improve outcomes for children and families.
Carrington Buze
Child law & policy postdoctoral fellow
Shree'ca Lott
program coordinator
Shree’ca Lott joined Emory Law in 2021 and was appointed program coordinator for Barton Child Law and the Turner Environmental Law and Policy Center in May 2023. She holds a degree in Business Administration from Georgia State University and plans to pursue further studies.
With over eight years of experience in higher education, Shree’ca is passionate about helping others and making a positive impact on her community. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with loved ones. Shree’ca is also a dedicated volunteer who enjoys giving back to her community whenever possible. She is grateful for the opportunity to work in a role that enables her to make a positive difference in the world and is committed to doing so for as long as possible.