![\"Justin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/tfl-l-justin-kohlhagen-jafco-02.jpg\")
Justin Kohlhagen, the new CEO of JAFCO, during the organization’s annual Back to School Picnic on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (JAFCO\/Courtesy)<\/p>\nAs 2026 began, so did a new career path for Justin Kohlhagen, who was named CEO of the South Florida-based nonprofit Jewish Adoption and Family Care Options (JAFCO) in January.<\/p>\n
JAFCO is focused on supporting children and their families through times of crisis. Helping to move that mission forward is something Kohlhagen sees as a privilege.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason I do this work is because every child deserves safety and stability and the opportunity to thrive,\u201d said Kohlhagen, who has been with JAFCO for more than a decade. \u201cI really view it as a privilege to be part of an organization that does this every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before becoming CEO, Kohlhagen was the executive director of JAFCO\u2019s Children\u2019s Ability Center, which offers 24\/7 care and respite services to families of children with developmental disabilities.<\/p>\n
We recently had the opportunity to speak with him about his new role, his priorities and his plan for the future as JAFCO continues to expand. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
Justin Kohlhagen, the new CEO of JAFCO, during the organization’s annual Back to School Picnic on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (JAFCO\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
Q: Tell me more about your background and experience beyond JAFCO.<\/p>\n
A: I am a licensed psychologist; that\u2019s how I started my career. I quickly realized that I wanted to get into the nonprofit space after doing private work and was excited to be able to join JAFCO and become a part of that family. I also taught special education while I was pursuing my degree and knew that working with children was impactful for me. Outside of all that, I am lucky to be married to my high school sweetheart and be the father of our four children. It brings me a lot of pride and fulfillment as well.<\/p>\n
Q: What is the mission behind JAFCO?<\/p>\n
A: To support children and families in crisis who need someone by their side no matter what that is. We help children who have been abused and neglected, children with developmental disabilities, communities that have experienced trauma, and really anywhere we\u2019re needed to support families.<\/p>\n
What makes JAFCO unique is not just that we respond to crises but that we also walk alongside children and families through every stage of their journey. We stick with clients as long as needed. Our goal is to be there whenever we\u2019re needed.<\/p>\n
Q: You are new to the role of CEO but have been with the organization for over a decade. What personally drew you to JAFCO\u2019s mission?<\/p>\n
A: As soon as I started here, I knew it was where I wanted to build my career. What drew me to it was the exceptional quality and whatever-it-takes attitude that nothing is going to get in the way of helping a family or child. When I came on board, I saw that right away with everyone in our leadership here and it kind of stuck, and that\u2019s what keeps me coming back \u2014 \u00a0the excitement and potential to help so many people.<\/p>\n
Q: What did it mean to you to be named CEO?<\/p>\n
A: It was the biggest honor of my career to date, but it\u2019s really not about that. I never really dreamed of being the CEO here. I went into the field because I wanted to help people and help children and then, over my decade at JAFCO and successive leadership positions, I realized that the way I am personally able to do that is by building a stronger and stronger organization that is able to help more children. To be able to be in this position of guiding the agency is such an amazing honor, and I feel so unbelievably lucky to have this opportunity and to keep pushing forward with this team.<\/p>\n
Q: What are your top priorities in your first year as CEO?<\/p>\n
A: We are known for the way we do things, always with the absolute top quality and with real heart, and getting it done that way is my top priority.<\/p>\n
Our agency has grown tremendously over the years and, as we grow and reach further, we don\u2019t want to lose that core of who we are and our ability to impact families. That is really, really important to me. That culture we talk about \u2014 the \u201cJAFCO way\u201d \u2014 is keeping that quality and heart strong.<\/p>\n
At the same time, when you talk about challenges, we have regular nonprofit challenges like the economy, but it\u2019s mostly the demand. There\u2019s children out there that need support and we want to help them all. We want to be well-equipped with the right team and resources, so my priority is to make sure that\u2019s all in place. Our amazing JAFCO family, our staff, are the core of what we do and the reason I am working so hard. They are the ones changing lives every single day. I think my most important role is making sure they have everything they need to do that.<\/p>\n
Q: How do you plan to use your leadership skills to further JAFCOs mission?<\/p>\n
A: I believe in setting very high standards but also caring deeply about the people we are doing work with. It\u2019s also about getting our word out there and making sure that people know about our services so no one ever has to wonder where they can turn to for help.<\/p>\n
Q: JAFCO has continued to grow in the past few years. How do you plan to keep your core values intact while expanding your reach?<\/p>\n
A: It comes down to the people. Surrounding ourselves with the best people and working on our team, developing ourselves and not just our staff but also our lay leaders. This JAFCO family we talk about, it\u2019s cliche sometimes but it does feel like that to me. We have our donors who are amazing, selfless supporters. We have our lay leaders who volunteer their time and help guide us with their expertise. We have our staff who do this day in and day out. Literally, we\u2019re a 24\/7 operation.<\/p>\n
Our M.O. has always been filling that unmet need. We started because it was a need in the Jewish community when it came to foster care and adoption, and it wasn\u2019t being done and people were saying, \u201cOh, that doesn\u2019t happen in our community,\u201d and it was a very real issue. Our founders stepped up and met that need and over time, wherever there\u2019s been a huge need like that, we\u2019ve stepped up. And that is something I definitely want to stick with.<\/p>\n
Q: What are your goals for JAFCO in the next few years?<\/p>\n
A: My overarching goal is to maintain our quality through scaling, growing and developing, so that people will say that the JAFCO they knew is always going to be that way even as we get much larger. That expands to seeing where we can offer more services and expanding our model to any community that might need it. And most importantly, to continue to live and breathe the JAFCO way and to impact the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As 2026 began, so did a new career path for Justin Kohlhagen, who was named CEO of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,5075,28,5076,249,251,250,114,266,109,45058],"class_list":["post-375878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-broward-jewish-news","tag-florida","tag-florida-jewish-journal","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-social","tag-sunrise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}