Meet The Staff

Heather Jensen and her husband have been married for almost eleven years, and have three children ages four to ten. Having a B.S. in Elementary Education, Heather has extensive experience working with children. She spent many years prior to earning her degree working in early childhood education, substitute teaching, teaching children with disabilities at Bay Cliff Health Camp, and then five years as a Reading Interventionist for Escanaba Area Public Schools. After her second child was born, she took several years off to stay home with her young children. During that time, Heather continued to seek opportunities to learn and serve her community, and found a home with the Delta County Great Start Parent Coalition. There she helped to plan events for families with young children, joined the Great Start Collaborative as a Parent Representative, and was able to attend many trainings to improve her parenting skills and her understanding of early childhood development. It was at one of these trainings that she first connected with her foster care agency, and began the licensing process. She and her family welcomed their first foster child into their home in January of 2017. His adoption was finalized exactly 14 months later. Around the same time that her youngest child joined her family, she also took over managing the Foster Closet of Michigan--Delta County, eventually transitioning to an independent 501c3, the UP Foster Closet of Delta County. Heather feels that foster care has been a long-time calling for her. She is passionate about helping children, connecting with other people who have felt that same calling, and helping them begin their own journey into foster care. What Heather loves most about her job are the relationships she builds with prospective and current foster, adoptive, and kinship families.