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For Immediate Release: October 13, 2022
Adoption Vanguard Award Goes to Podcast Producer and Host, Damon L. Davis During National Adoption Awareness Month Austin, TX - 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. The award will be presented on November 4, 2022, 9:00 am at AKA’s “Pebbles to Pearls: 30 years of connection, education, & support” virtual conference, during National Adoption Awareness Month. The virtual event delivers two full days of content with three powerful conference keynotes, Patricia Martinez Dorner, Melissa Guida-Richards, and Lorraine Dusky. Surrounding the three keynotes are dynamic, afternoon presentations and workshops from local, state and national professionals, advocates, experts, and creatives - all connected to adoption and foster care. Evening programming includes a screening and Q&A with director Rebecca Sansome. This event offers professionals CEU earning opportunities. The target audience for the conference is the adoption and foster care community, adjacent communities of donor conceived individuals and people with DNA discoveries, therapeutic practitioners, social work professionals, and reform advocates. Attendees receive knowledge, skills, support, and networking opportunities. ### About Adoption Knowledge Affiliates Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) is a unique non-profit organization, serving Central Texas since 1992. AKA provides support and education to adopted people, birth / first families, prospective and current adoptive and foster parents, and adoption professionals. We offer peer support, search assistance, educational programs, resources, and an annual conference with top-tier adoption professionals. In 2020, we expanded our services to include those with unexpected commercial DNA results. Whether it be due to adoption, donor conception, or other circumstance, we are ready to provide the same level of support as we have for nearly thirty years. More about AKA's 2022 AVA winner...  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.
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For Immediate Release:
February 7, 2022 AKA is pleased to announce approval of the slate of 2022 Board Member Nominees by our current membership. The following candidates are now members of the 2022 AKA Board of Directors: President: April Dinwoodie Vice President, Karen Whitaker Treasurer: Akara Skye Secretary: Tamara Whinston Immediate Past-President, Rod Lind, LPC Board Member-At-Large: Jen Reichert, MEd, LCPAA Board Member-At-Large: Dianne Sonnenberg Board Member-At-Large: Sally Bowles Board Member-At-Large: Dirk Uphoff Board Member-At-Large: Isha Rush Board Member-At-Large: Shannon Quist Board Member-At-Large: Gail Whitehead (term extension approved by board vote) We are so appreciative of our new and veteran board members' willingness to serve the AKA community! Our organizational reach has grown the past two years and the 2022 AKA Board perfectly reflects that reality with members from across the country serving. Please join us in welcoming them to their positions. As is the AKA tradition, we hope they will feel supported in their roles by the many of you who will step up as AKA volunteers throughout the year. We could not do what we do without all of you! To learn more about each of our esteemed board members, please visit the board members page on our website. About Adoption Knowledge Affiliates Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) is a unique non-profit organization, serving Central Texas since 1992. AKA provides support and education to adopted people, birth / first families, prospective and current adoptive and foster parents, and adoption professionals. We offer peer support, search assistance, educational programs, resources, and an annual conference with top-tier adoption professionals. In 2020, we expanded our services to include those with unexpected commercial DNA results. Whether it be due to adoption, donor conception, or other circumstance, we are ready to provide the same level of support as we have for thirty years. ### Adoption Knowledge Affiliates Group Contact Email: aka@adoptionknowledge.org Phone: 512.553.2520  For Immediate Release:
10/21/21
Adoption Vanguard Award Given to Ardent Adoption Reform Advocate During National Adoption Awareness Month Austin, TX - Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) is honored to announce Dawn Scott as the recipient of our Adoption Vanguard Award for 2021. Dawn has been an incredible advocate for adoption transparency for over a decade. Serving as an ally to adoptees in their fight for original birth certificate access, Dawn was a founding member of the Texas Adoptee Rights (STAR) Board of Directors, pushing for the passage of HB984 (2015), SB 329/HB547 (2017), and HB2725 (2019). After her tenure, she continued her advocacy for the passage of HB1386/SB1877 (2021) as a member of the STAR Advisory Board. Dawn has volunteered with AKA in almost every possible capacity. She has served on the AKA Board of Directors in numerous roles, including as AKA President. She has also served as a key member of the AKA conference planning committee, ensuring continuity of process, mission, and scope, while challenging and supporting colleagues to think more creatively about content and marketing. Dawn currently serves as the co-facilitator of two AKA Peer Support Groups - one for adoptive and foster parents and one for individuals with DNA discoveries. Dawn is connected to adoption through her role as an adoptive parent. The award will be presented on November 5, 2021, 9:15 am at AKA’s “Elevation: Voices in Adoption & Foster Care” virtual conference, during National Adoption Awareness Month. The virtual event delivers two full days of content with three powerful conference keynotes, Allison Davis Maxon, M.S., LMFT, Stephanie Drenka, and Angela Tucker. Surrounding the three keynotes are dynamic, afternoon presentations and workshops from local, state and national professionals, advocates, experts, and creatives - all connected to adoption and foster care. Evening programming includes a Friday night premiere of Betwixt & Between: A new play by adoptee Maggie Gallant. This event offers professionals CEU earning opportunities. The target audience for the conference is the adoption and foster care community; adjacent communities such as donor conceived individuals and people with DNA discoveries; therapeutic practitioners, social work professionals, and reform advocates. Attendees receive knowledge, skills, support, and networking opportunities. ### About Adoption Knowledge Affiliates Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) is a unique non-profit organization, serving Central Texas since 1992. AKA provides support and education to adopted people, birth / first families, prospective and current adoptive and foster parents, and adoption professionals. We offer peer support, search assistance, educational programs, resources, and an annual conference with top-tier adoption professionals. In 2020, we expanded our services to include those with unexpected commercial DNA results. Whether it be due to adoption, donor conception, or other circumstance, we are ready to provide the same level of support as we have for nearly thirty years.  For Immediate Release:
10/7/2021
National Adoption Awareness Month Innovative Adoption Conference in November Austin, TX - Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) presents”Elevation: Voices in Adoption & Foster Care” during National Adoption Awareness Month. The virtual event, scheduled for Friday & Saturday, Nov 5-6, 2021, delivers two full days of powerful content with three powerful conference keynotes, Allison Davis Maxon, Stephanie Drenka, and Angela Tucker. Surrounding the three keynotes are two days packed with dynamic presentations and workshops from local, state and national thought-leaders, advocates, and experts, all connected to adoption and foster care. Evening programming includes a Friday night premiere of Betwixt & Between: A new play by adoptee Maggie Gallant, followed by a Q&A with the Austin playwright and cast. This event offers professionals CEU earning opportunities. The target audience for the conference is the adoption and foster care community; adjacent communities such as donor conceived individuals and people with DNA discoveries; therapeutic practitioners, social work professionals, and reform advocates. Attendees receive knowledge, skills, support, and networking opportunities. This innovative virtual conference, taking place during National Adoption Awareness Month, demonstrates the commitment of small, grassroots nonprofits, in this case Adoption Knowledge Affiliates, to meet the needs of their community. AKA has found a way to bring the support they are committed to providing to their membership and community in a cost-effective, accessible way, If you would like to volunteer or sponsor the conference email aka@adoptionknowledge.org. ### About Adoption Knowledge Affiliates Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) is a unique non-profit organization, serving Central Texas since 1992. AKA provides support and education to adopted people, birth / first families, prospective and current adoptive and foster parents, and adoption professionals. We offer peer support, search assistance, educational programs, resources, and an annual conference with top-tier adoption professionals. In 2020, we expanded our services to include those with unexpected commercial DNA results. Whether it be due to adoption, donor conception, or other circumstance. We are ready to provide the same level of support as we have these past 30 years.  For Immediate Release:
October 10, 2021
New ‘Ghost Kingdom’ play premieres during National Adoption Awareness Month A new play exploring the complexities of the adoption ‘ghost kingdom’ debuts online in an exciting virtual reading at the Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) 2021 Conference. The playwright, the director, and one of the lead actors are adoptees living in the US and UK. The play, Betwixt & Between, premieres as part of the conference line-up on Friday, November 5 at 6:30pm CST. Non-conference attendees wishing to participate can purchase a separate ticket. A talkback with members of the cast, the playwright, and the director follows the 50 minute virtual reading. Playwright Maggie Gallant also wrote the critically acclaimed play Hot Dogs at the Eiffel Tower, about her search for her French Papa. She performed the show at the 2015 AKA Conference. It went on to performances in Canada, including the Winnipeg International Fringe Festival, followed by a 5-week run at the Hyde Park Theatre, Austin. For Betwixt & Between, Gallant asked JMTC Theatre Artistic Director, playwright and adoptee rights advocate, Suzanne Bachner to direct the show. Bachner, from New York City, is adopted and wrote about her experience in the award-winning play, 'The Good Adoptee'. Bachner and Gallant are joined by British actor, playwright and founder of Motormouse Comedy, Karen Bartholomew. Bartholomew’s adoption reunion play, 'Giving Up Marty', was selected for the 2020 Vault Festival in London. Rounding out the cast is Austin actor Genevieve Schroeder-Arce, who plays thirteen-year old Eloise, and Bachner’s partner in JMTC Theatre, actor Bob Brader, who narrates the play. The Design Team includes Graphic Design by Erik Niells of Square Bear Studio in Austin, and Video Design by Broadway Projection Designer Chris Kateff. Recorded live across three time zones, the play is set in New York City on January 15, 2020, the day that New York adoptees gained the right to obtain their original birth certificates. Lucy, played by Gallant, unwittingly steps into the liminal space between knowing and unknowing, aka The Gap’. There she is confronted by her fantasy self, Eloise, and the Caseworker assigned to help them both. When Eloise pushes too far, Lucy must grapple with who she is, who she was, and who she might have been. The Ghost Kingdom is a term coined by Betty Jean Lifton, an adoptee and influential psychologist who specialized in adoption therapy and fought for adoption reform. The Ghost Kingdom describes the hypothetical world adoptees enter when imagining their birth relatives. The two-day AKA Conference is open to anyone connected to the adoption and foster care community, including adjacent communities such as donor conceived individuals and people with DNA discoveries; therapeutic practitioners, social work professionals, and reform advocates. Attendees receive knowledge, skills, support, and networking opportunities. ### About Adoption Knowledge Affiliates: Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) is a unique non-profit organization, serving Central Texas since 1992. AKA provides support and education to adopted people, birth / first families, prospective and current adoptive and foster parents, and adoption professionals. We offer peer support, search assistance, educational programs, resources, and an annual conference with top-tier adoption professionals. In 2020, we expanded our services to include those with unexpected commercial DNA results. Whether it be due to adoption, donor conception, or other circumstance. We are ready to provide the same level of support as we have these past 30 years.  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
4/9/21 Texas Adoptee Rights Wins House Passage 144-1 for HB1386 In an incredible display of support, House Bill 1386, filed by Representative Cody Harris (R-Palestine) passed the TX House Friday, April 9th with a vote of 144-1. Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA), along with other Texas adoptee rights advocates, most notably Support Texas Adoptee Rights (STAR) are advocating for the restoration of equal access to original birth certificates for adult adoptees born in Texas. Since 1997, every Texas legislative session has had a bill of this nature introduced by the adoption community for consideration. Members of AKA have been working to restore access to information for adoptees since 1992. The current bill is expected to affect over 800,000 Texas-born adoptees and has been streamlined to garner an even broader level of support. There is also a Senate companion bill, SB1877 this session. Dr. Joellen Peters, STAR President and past AKA President is optimistic, saying,, "Adoptee advocates have been opening the hearts and minds of the Texas Legislature session after session. We hope that this session, with the swell of support across Texas, adopted adults will be given the right to their most basic identity information... their original birth certificate." STAR, a 501c4, has spearheaded the legislative effort in recent years, picking up where TxCARE left off in 2007. Members of AKA, a 501c3 in Austin, TX, wanting to focus exclusively on adoptee rights issues, founded STAR in 2013. This includes several AKA past presidents and board members, all adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents advocating for the same cause. Connie Gray is the founder and first president of STAR. Their early advocacy resulted in the filing of HB984, authored by Representative Joseph Deshotel (D-Beaumont), after meeting with advocates and attending Adoption Knowledge Affiliates' annual conference. HB984 passed the House 138-1. The bill was then picked up by Senator Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe). Both legislators successfully garnered broad bipartisan support in each chamber. In 2019, Representative Gina Calanni (D-Katy), an adoptee, carried HB2725. This session's bill sponsor, Representative Harris, has his own connection to adoption as an adoptive parent. He is passionate about adopted Texans having this right, which would include his daughter when she turns 18, as he so noted in the bill's Public Affairs hearing in March. The bill provides all adult adoptees born in Texas access to a non-certified copy of their original birth certificate. Dawn Scott, former Vice President of STAR and former AKA President, had these words to share, "As an adoptive parent, today’s passage of HB1386 honors my daughter, who deserves all the pieces of her own story, beginning with her birth record, the definitive documentation that proves she was born Texan, born American. I am so grateful to Rep. Harris who has shown us that truth is the foremost legacy we owe our families." AKA celebrates its 30th anniversary as a nonprofit in Austin, TX in 2022. Their mission is to bring all the voices of adoption together for connection, education, and support. According to Marci Purcell, AKA's Executive Director, "Members have been pushing to restore ease and equality of access for adoptees due to the many challenges they face for the entirety of those years...and then some." Difficulties faced by adoptees without their information include the absence of family health history, which comes with financial and psychological burdens not faced by non-adopted citizens. Additional challenges include obtaining passports and other government documents, as well as the strain of not knowing who in the community may be a genetic relative. Although there is an arcane system in place through the courts and a state registry, these are cumbersome, expensive, and daunting. Many are unaccustomed to going before a judge and those deceased cannot register, leaving adoptees and their families without crucial answers. Gladney Center for Adoption is the most recent heavy-hitter in the line-up of supporters, as noted in a recent Texas Monthly article. After decades of opposition this was a day advocates thought might never come, and many AKA members are still processing the news. Anne Bingham, former STAR board member, longtime AKA member, and peer support group facilitator for AKA had this to say in response, “As a birth mother who placed at Gladney, I’m heartened to see the organization understands that it is essential for adoptees to have access to their original birth certificates.” Also in support of the issue, Buckner Children and Family Services, The American Academy of Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and Concerned United Birth Parents (CUB) just to name a few. With so much support, AKA believes Texas can be the next state to remove the shame and stigma associated with closed records this session. To learn more about this issue please call or visit:
 Adoption Knowledge Affiliates PO Box 4082 Austin, TX 78765 March 5, 2021 To the Honorable Members of the Texas Legislature: Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) urges you to support HB1386, legislation which restores, by removing undue burden and hindrance, the right of access for adult adoptees to their original birth certificates. Since 1992, AKA has offered essential knowledge and lifelong support to the adoption community, the general population and key policymakers. For nearly 30 years we have promoted honesty and openness in adoption practices and laws. A cornerstone of that effort has been urging legislators to replace archaic laws with streamlined, equitable access for adoptees to obtain this most critical document, their original birth certificate (OBC). Adoption Knowledge Affiliates is especially unique in that we bring together all parties of the adoption community. Our membership includes adoptive parents, adopted people, birth family, prospective adoptive and foster parents, and professionals in the field. We are located in Texas. It is with this well-informed service model that we wholeheartedly lend our support to the fight for OBC access in Texas. Our membership and our mission compel us, session after session, to advocate for better laws around adoption and foster care, with special attention around the issue of equal ease and right of access for adoptees to their vital record. We have served thousands of Texas-born adoptees over the past three decades and can attest, the hurdles and barriers to information are not only psychologically harmful, it is an opportunity for bad actors to exploit archaic secrecy practices, as well as a logistical nightmare for adoptees. Please reach out to our office for specific examples of the hardships encountered by adoptees trying to navigate the labyrinth of laws and humiliations built in to the current system. We have scores. It is long overdue that each state removes the stigma and secrecy of adoption by removing the restricted access to OBC’s for their adult adopted citizens. Our laws need to be updated to meet the needs of society today. Please join us in support of original birth certificate access for adult adoptees. Sincerely, Marci Purcell Executive Director Adoption Knowledge Affiliates 512-553-AKA0 (2520) The Adoption Knowledge Affiliates 2021 Board of Directors www.adoptionknowledge.org By Marci Purcell On the heels of AKA and Adoption Network Cleveland's collaboration for our 2020 conference this past fall, the two groups came together once again for a DNA Discovery Panel Event. The panel, which served as AKA's large group quarterly meeting, was facilitated by Traci Onders and featured a number of people impacted by commercial testing DNA discoveries, including our very own Dawn Williamson-Scott, AKA former president and active member. Dawn, a wealth of information on many things adoption related, has been cofacilitating our DNA Discovery Peer Support Group from it's inception in September 2020. The group meets on the second Thursday of the month. In advance of the DNA event, Traci Onders, search specialist from ANC gave a written interview with Severance Magazine. Traci speaks eloquently about the complexities of using DNA as a search tool in finding biological family. AKA, and our long history serving the adoption community, is also mentioned in the article. During the event, the folks at AKA expressed gratitude for the invitation to work with Adoption Network Cleveland, again and hope more opportunities arise in the future. If you are at all connected to or impacted by a DNA discovery, whether through a formal adoption search, misattributed parentage, unexpected family finding, or donor conception, please reach out to AKA. We would love to support you at our monthly DNA Discovery group, the second Thursday of the month, 7pm, central time. The meetings are held over Zoom. RSVP to aka@adoptionknowledge.org.
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Since 1992, AKA has offered essential knowledge and lifelong support recognizing adoption as a complex, on-going and intergenerational process. We serve people touched by adoption in all its variations – infant, open, closed, domestic, international, transracial and kinship. We need your help in reaching our fundraising goals. Please contribute to our Annual Fund Drive!
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Adoption Knowledge Affiliates
PO Box 4082 Austin, TX 78765 |
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