2022 Adoption Vanguard Award Recipient - Damon L. Davis
Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) is honored to announce Damon L. Davis as the recipient of our Adoption Vanguard Award for 2022. Damon is an adoptee who, through his podcast, Who Am I Really? helps adopted people explore their own feelings about their adoption, accept their desire to understand their own personal history, and decide whether reunification with biological relatives is right for them. In addition, the podcast aims to help non-adopted people understand some of what is in the minds of their friends, family members, or others who are adopted. Damon developed his podcast in 2017 after he reunited with his biological family and it has been a meaningful endeavor for both Damon and his thousands of listeners in the adoption community and far beyond.
More About Damon L. Davis and the important work he is doing...
Damon Davis is the host of the Who Am I Really? podcast (www.whoamireallypodcast.com) where adopted people share their stories of adoption and their attempt to find their birth families. He has interviewed nearly 200 adoptees from an array of life experiences from awful adoptions and amazing reunions to inspiring adoptions and unfortunate reunions.
In his autobiography, "Who Am I Really? - An Adoptee Memoir", Damon shares his journey to becoming an adoptive parent and his emotions over the birth of his son, Seth. He opens up about the heartbreak of grappling with his adoptive mother's mental illness while balancing the joy of locating his birth mother working nearby. His journey took a twist when he located his biological father via DNA testing.
In his autobiography, "Who Am I Really? - An Adoptee Memoir", Damon shares his journey to becoming an adoptive parent and his emotions over the birth of his son, Seth. He opens up about the heartbreak of grappling with his adoptive mother's mental illness while balancing the joy of locating his birth mother working nearby. His journey took a twist when he located his biological father via DNA testing.
Damon's podcast, Who am I Really, is intended to help you explore your own feelings about your adoption, accept your desire to try to understand your own personal history, and decide for yourself whether a search for reunification with your biological relatives is right for you. It will help you understand how others have dealt with issues related to protecting the feelings of their adopted families who may be supportive of your search, or question your motives and present challenges.
For non-adoptees, this podcast will help you understand some of what is in the minds of your friends, family members, or others who are adopted, but you didn’t know if you should ask some of the questions that will be answered here.
The stories will make you smile or bring you to tears, but they’re all true as told by the people who lived them. In them, I hope you’ll find something that inspires you, validates your feelings about wanting to search, or motivates you to have the strength along your journey to learn “Who Am I… Really?”
For non-adoptees, this podcast will help you understand some of what is in the minds of your friends, family members, or others who are adopted, but you didn’t know if you should ask some of the questions that will be answered here.
The stories will make you smile or bring you to tears, but they’re all true as told by the people who lived them. In them, I hope you’ll find something that inspires you, validates your feelings about wanting to search, or motivates you to have the strength along your journey to learn “Who Am I… Really?”
About the Adoption Vanguard Award (AVA)
Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) is a non-profit organization that has served the adoption community in Texas for 30 years. During the past several years, our impact has grown in reach, now serving the community nationwide and even worldwide. We provide education, connection, and support to the adoption, foster care, and adjacent communities. These include, but are not limited to, adoptees, foster care alumni, birth families, adoptive, foster, and prospective adoptive parents, donor conceived individuals, and individuals with DNA discoveries.
With a goal to create healing and empathetic dialogues, where mutual respect is encouraged, AKA is a leader among educational adoption organizations. AKA has a long history of advocacy that was founded by adoptees and others connected to adoption. At the heart of AKA is respect for the unique needs of all those separated by adoption and a desire to forge from shared loss a more dignified path to wholeness. Our model of bringing together all members in this community in order to encourage empathy and sensitivity around differing perspectives makes our organization unique. Our services extend to the entire evolving adoption continuum and beyond, whether domestic or international, reunited or searching, closed or open, fostered or adopted. We also work to educate adoption professionals, social workers and attorneys, as well as legislators, to promote honesty, transparency, and reform in practices and policy relating to adoption, foster care, and adjacent experiences such as donor conception.
As such, we affirm and appreciate those in the community who embody this vision we uphold.
Honorees include:
With a goal to create healing and empathetic dialogues, where mutual respect is encouraged, AKA is a leader among educational adoption organizations. AKA has a long history of advocacy that was founded by adoptees and others connected to adoption. At the heart of AKA is respect for the unique needs of all those separated by adoption and a desire to forge from shared loss a more dignified path to wholeness. Our model of bringing together all members in this community in order to encourage empathy and sensitivity around differing perspectives makes our organization unique. Our services extend to the entire evolving adoption continuum and beyond, whether domestic or international, reunited or searching, closed or open, fostered or adopted. We also work to educate adoption professionals, social workers and attorneys, as well as legislators, to promote honesty, transparency, and reform in practices and policy relating to adoption, foster care, and adjacent experiences such as donor conception.
As such, we affirm and appreciate those in the community who embody this vision we uphold.
Honorees include:
- Evy Ramos, birth mother and broadcast journalist who brought a spotlight to the legislative effort in 2015.
- Courtney Jones, Foster care alum, adoptive parent and Founder of change1.org, honored in 2016.
- Patricia Dorner, adoptive parent, author, therapist, and veteran advocate with a long history of devotion to aiding families in bridging separation by closed adoption, honored in 2017.
- Texas Representative Gina Calanni, adoptee who carried Texas House Bill 2725 for a 144-1 House passage, honored in 2020.
- Dawn M. Scott, adoptive parent, who has served on the AKA board in numerous roles, including AKA President, and was a founding and integral member of the Texas Adoptee Rights (STAR), serving as its Vice President and advisory board member, honored in 2021.
- Damon L. Davis, adoptee, author, and host of the podcast, Who Am I Really?, honored in 2022.