TOPEKA—Chief Judge Merlin Wheeler, Fifth Judicial District, headquartered at Emporia, has been invited to attend the National Governors Association Three Branch Institute on Child Social and Emotional Well-Being in Philadelphia, PA, July 24-26, it was announced in Topeka Friday.
Kansas is one of six states invited to send a team representing the judicial, executive, and legislative branches of government to work together to create a plan for improving child welfare in their states. Mark Gleeson, Director of Trial Court Programs with the Office of Judicial Administration, will join Judge Wheeler as representatives of the Kansas judicial branch.
The goal of the institute is to "develop state specific plans to promote and measure well-being among children and youth receiving child welfare services; consider evidence-based and research informed strategies that will have a positive effect; and coordinate and enhance existing efforts through the cross-system collaboration and by leveraging Medicaid and other federal and state dollars to fund innovative practices.
Senator Forrest Knox, Altoona, and Representative Jene Vickrey, Louisburg, will represent the legislative branch. Kathy Armstrong and Brian Dempsey, attorneys with the Kansas Department for Children and Families, will represent the executive branch.
The other states selected to participate in the Institute include Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Sponsors of the institute are the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Casey Family Programs, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the National Center for State Courts.
Judge Wheeler has been a District Judge in the 5th Judicial District since 1990 and also has previously served as an assigned judge for the Supreme Court and Kansas Court of Appeals. In addition, he has been appointed to hear cases from other counties. During his tenure as chief judge, he implemented a Child Visitation and Exchange Center, the Citizens Review Board, Child Advocacy Center, Multi-Disciplinary Teams, and Drug Court.
He was admitted to practice law in 1977 upon his graduation from the Washburn University School of Law. He received an Associate of Arts degree from Dodge City Community College in 1972 and a Bachelor of Arts from Emporia State University in 1974. He has had additional course work at the National Judicial College, including general jurisdiction, advanced evidence, settlement and mediation techniques, computer uses, and handling capital cases.
Chief Judge Wheeler served as City Attorney for Emporia from 1977 to 1980 and then joined the firm of Perkins and Hollembeak, Chtd., where he rose to shareholder and director before leaving that firm to start his own firm in 1988. He was the owner of Merlin G. Wheeler, Chtd. from 1988 until his appointment to the bench in 1990.