As she assumes her new role as president and CEO of the Great Lakes Bay Region CAN Council, Emily Yeager has one goal… assisting an awesome staff and volunteers.

Yeager’s no stranger to the CAN Council. She was a court appointed special advocate for children for five years and later headed the local program. She also did public affairs work and served on a recent capital campaign to expand the Saginaw headquarters building at 1311 N. Michigan Ave.

The CAN Council has a program to help parents improve their parenting skills to prevent the abuse. A public outreach is designed to let children know how they can report the abuse and teach people how to recognize signs of abuse and how to report it to proper authorities.

Yeager said there are some 1,200 children in Bay and Saginaw counties who are victims of abuse or neglect. A state agency will release its annual ‘kids count’ report with the latest statistics on child abuse and neglect later this month.

Yeager takes the helm replacing Suzanne Greenberg, who left after nearly 25 years to become the executive director of the Michigan Children’s Trust Fund.