Gina Linehan

Gina met Cherie Clark in 1973, and after spending just a few hours with her, she was committed to helping the children of Vietnam. Gina founded the Wisconsin chapter of Friends of Children of Vietnam (FCVN) in 1973, and served as its President until 1976. During that time she raised funds and collected essential items needed in Vietnam for the FCVN operation and various orphanages and children’s centers. She was the Midwest coordinator of the FCVN Foster Orphanage Program and personally managed that program for two orphanages: Providence Orphanage in Sa Dec and Providence Orphanage in Can Tho. Gina adopted three children from Vietnam: Steven Ky, Sara Trinh, and Rebecca Loan, who joined their three older sisters, Kim, Jane, and Christie in 1974 and 1975.

Gina graduated from Seattle University with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, psychology, and addiction studies, and she has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Washington. She has worked in the field of social work since 1988, specifically in medical social work since 1990. She has been a social worker in the Emergency Department at Seattle Children’s Hospital since 2000. She currently chairs the substance abuse committee, and has served as social work administrator on-call, as a member of the social work administration team, as one of three child abuse and neglect social work consultants at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and on a variety of other committees. She has designed curriculum, policies and procedures, and presentations on a variety of topics, and has trained numerous new staff and social work graduate students. Gina is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the substance abuse and the emergency department sections of the Social Work Department Sharepoint, an on-line resource for social workers and others providers in the hospital. Her special interests and specializations are in the areas of crisis intervention, child and adolescent mental health, child abuse and neglect, substance abuse, psychosocial assessments, attachment and adoption, and child development.

She has volunteered as an emergency mental health worker for the Red Cross, and has served on the Board of Directors for the Washington State Alcohol/Drug Help Line, the Matt Talbot Center for homeless men and women with substance abuse problems, the Washington State Department of Humanities, and for the Irish Heritage Club in Seattle, Washington. She is a member of one of the Children’s Protection Teams in Bellevue, Washington, with responsibility for reviewing child abuse and neglect cases and making recommendations to the courts. Gina loves spending time with her children, grandchildren and friends. She enjoys traveling, reading, studying new topics, music, sitting at the beach, and, if she had more time, playing bridge and golf.