BOONE—Carl Lanier is the new executive director of Appalachian Family Innovations (AFI), a research center and service branch of Appalachian State University’s Institute for Health and Human Services.

Lanier is a long-time veteran of child and family services and has been an AFI employee for 16 years.

He replaces Dr. Gary Timbers, who was the agency’s founder and director for 35 years. Timbers retired in February.

Lanier earned a B.A. in business administration in 1983 and an M.A. in special education in 1991 from Appalachian.

He says AFI’s mission of preserving and strengthening families is his top priority. “AFI’s greatest asset is its quality staff. Our trainers, consultants, evaluators, social workers, practitioners and support staff are highly skilled and hardworking. We have an exciting future ahead of us,” he said.

AFI’s 65 employees provide services across North Carolina. Its central office, located in Morganton, houses Catawba Valley Healthy Families, a program serving first-time parents in Burke County, and Home Remedies, a family preservation program serving 14 counties in the region.

In 2007, Catawba Valley Healthy Families served 96 families with first-time parents who are at the highest risk for abuse and neglect.

Home Remedies served 60 families in 2007, including 116 children who were at imminent risk of removal from their homes. Following intensive in-home services, 97 percent of those children were able to remain in their homes.

Satellite offices in Asheville and Winston-Salem house the Professional Parenting division, which serves foster and adoptive families across western North Carolina.

Professional Parenting and Adoption Plus places approximately 80 children in foster care a year. Last year, 29 children were successfully returned to their families or were adopted.

AFI’s training divisions provide on-going support for private non-profit and public group homes as well as training for county department of social services, area mental health agencies, county health departments, system of care projects, community action agencies, and county school systems. Last year, more than 1,000 individuals from across the state received training from AFI.

For more information about AFI, visit www.familyinnovations.org.