It might seem odd to think of a retired cop working at
a place decorated with kid-sized furniture and stuffed animals. But for Joe
Goulet, who was a Springfield police officer for 27 years, the mission at
his new job — as executive director of the Child Advocacy Center
— isn’t all that different from his work as a cop. Goulet spent more than a dozen years as the
detective assigned to investigate sexual assaults. In the 1980s, that
assignment landed him on a task force charged with creating the CAC. Now,
as the new director of the center, Goulet’s job is to help the agency
provide sexually abused children with a variety of services, ranging from
the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases to therapeutic
treatment. Goulet replaces Jonna Cooley, who was executive
director from 1995 until last fall, when she resigned in the midst of an
investigation into possible misappropriation of funds. Goulet says he
can’t offer even a ballpark estimate on the missing funds, because
CAC’s financial records have been turned over to investigators with
the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office. No charges have been filed
against Cooley. When Cooley left, about 40 people applied for the
director’s job, including assistant director Christine Lindsay.
Lindsay became interim director, but withdrew her name from consideration
for the top spot. “She has stayed on as assistant director, and
I’m very happy for that,” Goulet says. “She’s been
a tremendous help.” Goulet was the unanimous choice of the CAC Advisory
Board, though one board member — CAC founding director Betsy Goulet
— was not involved in the hiring process. Betsy Goulet is Joe
Goulet’s wife. They married in 1990, shortly after they had worked
together to establish the CAC. When Joe was hired as executive director in
April, Betsy resigned from the center’s advisory board. She now works as a consultant for the National
Children’s Alliance, the organization that provides training and
accreditation for agencies like Child Advocacy Center. “Betsy works for the Mother Ship,” Goulet
says. Betsy Goulet will also serve as president of the board
of directors for the Friends of the CAC board — a separate, nonprofit
group charged with raising funds to augment CAC’s budget.
This article appears in Jun 1-7, 2006.
