Pensacola, Fla. (June 5, 2023) – Cory Borcherding will serve as the new president of FamiliesFirst Network, a child welfare agency serving children in Circuit 1 from Escambia to Walton counties. Cory replaces Mark Jones, who is retiring after more than 40 years of service in the mental health and child welfare field.

Responsibilities as president

In his new role, Cory will oversee FamiliesFirst Network’s efforts in serving abused and neglected children in Northwest Florida, with services including case management, adoptive parent recruitment and specialized help for teens and young adults preparing to leave the foster care system. FamiliesFirst Network served more than 2,895 children in its last fiscal year.

Experience in child welfare

Cory has been with FamiliesFirst Network since 2005, when he joined the team as a family services counselor. Since then, he has served in such roles as case manager, unit manager, team manager and assistant director of case management. Most recently, Cory served as director of case management, supervising 130 team members in 12 programs located at six service locations throughout Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties.

Over the years, Cory has been involved in many new initiatives including the development of in-home non-judicial units, early childhood court and – most recently – the redesign of adoption case management. In his time with FamiliesFirst Network, Cory has demonstrated executive-level leadership skills through challenges such as contract requirement changes, statute and administrative code changes, pandemic-related impacts, funding obstacles and an increase in the number of children needing services.

Cory’s career began more than two decades ago as an outdoor youth counselor working with at-risk children in a therapeutic wilderness setting. He also worked in a school-day support program and with young men involved with the Department of Juvenile Justice in a juvenile sex offender treatment program. Cory earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a Master of Science in Management and Leadership from Troy State University in Alabama.