" Navigating the Intersections of Adoption"
2020 Annual Conference Schedule
*This page is subject to change.
Friday, Oct 23rd
9:45am – 10:00am Welcome & Adoption Vanguard Award Presentation
10:00am – 12:00pm Keynote 2 CEUs
"NAVIGATING THE INTERSECTIONS OF TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION" - Torrey E. Carroll, MA, LPC & Nikki M. Carroll, MA, LPC
The decision to adopt across racial/cultural lines is a lifelong commitment to exploring matters of race, confronting racism in all its forms, and constantly developing new skills and aptitudes. Transracial Adoptions are increasing in the U.S. With the creative work by and for Transracial Adoptees, this phenomenon is shining a light on the unique challenges of raising children of color in homes different from their culture of origin.
This keynote will encourage participants to have sustained and healthy discussions about race and culture. Participants will also increase awareness about the difference between intent and impact, develop strategies for identifying and curbing micro-aggressions, and gain a deeper understanding of the responsibility of parenting transracially. This dialogue will not support a “color-blind,” but rather a “color-affirming” approach, and provide developmentally sensitive tools and resources to create a sense of hope and offer a deeper understanding of how families can support transracial adoptees as they grow through the development stages of racial awareness and identity.
12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch
(On your own or on-site if meal plan purchased during registration)
1:00pm – 2:15pm Session 1 1.25 Ethics CEUs
9:45am – 10:00am Welcome & Adoption Vanguard Award Presentation
10:00am – 12:00pm Keynote 2 CEUs
"NAVIGATING THE INTERSECTIONS OF TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION" - Torrey E. Carroll, MA, LPC & Nikki M. Carroll, MA, LPC
The decision to adopt across racial/cultural lines is a lifelong commitment to exploring matters of race, confronting racism in all its forms, and constantly developing new skills and aptitudes. Transracial Adoptions are increasing in the U.S. With the creative work by and for Transracial Adoptees, this phenomenon is shining a light on the unique challenges of raising children of color in homes different from their culture of origin.
This keynote will encourage participants to have sustained and healthy discussions about race and culture. Participants will also increase awareness about the difference between intent and impact, develop strategies for identifying and curbing micro-aggressions, and gain a deeper understanding of the responsibility of parenting transracially. This dialogue will not support a “color-blind,” but rather a “color-affirming” approach, and provide developmentally sensitive tools and resources to create a sense of hope and offer a deeper understanding of how families can support transracial adoptees as they grow through the development stages of racial awareness and identity.
12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch
(On your own or on-site if meal plan purchased during registration)
1:00pm – 2:15pm Session 1 1.25 Ethics CEUs
(A) Ethics Panel - Panelists: Patricia Martinez-Dorner, LCSW; Will Francis, LMSW & Executive Director for the National Association of Social Workers, Texas Chapter; Tyler Pennington, Attorney, Board Certified~Family Law; Joellen Peters, PhD; Renee Gelin, SOS National Director
(All Attendees)
The Ethics Panel will include a Q&A with audience participation, as well as pre-submitted questions on all topics relating to adoption and foster care.
2:15pm – 2:30pm Networking Break (visit exhibit booths and bookstore)
2:30pm – 3:45pm Session 2 1.25 CEUs
(A) Saving Our Sisters; A Nationwide Organization & Movement - Renee Gelin, Director
Saving Our Sisters is a grassroots network aimed at preventing the unnecessary separation of children from their biological mothers. The organization focuses on family preservation utilizing an all-volunteer network to support parents and their families by providing them with the education and resources/tools to build confidence in themselves and their parenting abilities.
(B) Exiting the Shame Cave: Honoring Children's Humanity in Conversations About Sexual Trauma - Katy Perkins, LCSW
This session will cover important information about sexual assault, its impacts, and context. Further, participants will learn about how to have basic conversations with children about sexuality and consent and identify the impact of personal biases and history when discussing trauma, especially with children.
(C) Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Youth in Foster & Adoptive Families - Karey Scheyd, MPA
Adoption advocates, staff, and caregivers are an extremely diverse community of people with one thing in common: the desire to love, nurture, and care for children and youth. Many people involved in the adoption world may not realize that LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in foster care and are at higher risks of rejection, victimization, and other harmful outcomes. This session will first explain key terms and concepts that all adults need to know in order to better understand LGBTQ youth. Participants will then be presented with research on the critical importance of providing affirming homes for these young people, as well as concrete tips for how to embrace and support the population.
3:45pm – 4:00pm Networking Break (visit exhibit booths and bookstore)
4:00pm – 5:15pm Session 3 1.25 CEUs
(A) Equal Access to Original Birth Certificates: Fighting for Our Rights in the State of Texas - Joellen Peters, PhD, Texas Adoptee Rights President
As Texas continues the campaign to restore Original Birth Certificate access next legislative session, this presentation will highlight the current laws in Texas, as well as the history of the fight for OBC access in the State of Texas. Attendees will learn about the rationale to alter birth certificates, the psychological implications of secrecy and lack of information, and discover the problems adult adoptees have with altered birth certificates. Learn a bit about the legislative process and how and why to get involved.
(B) Foster Care Workshop - Chelsy Alexander
(All Attendees)
The Ethics Panel will include a Q&A with audience participation, as well as pre-submitted questions on all topics relating to adoption and foster care.
2:15pm – 2:30pm Networking Break (visit exhibit booths and bookstore)
2:30pm – 3:45pm Session 2 1.25 CEUs
(A) Saving Our Sisters; A Nationwide Organization & Movement - Renee Gelin, Director
Saving Our Sisters is a grassroots network aimed at preventing the unnecessary separation of children from their biological mothers. The organization focuses on family preservation utilizing an all-volunteer network to support parents and their families by providing them with the education and resources/tools to build confidence in themselves and their parenting abilities.
(B) Exiting the Shame Cave: Honoring Children's Humanity in Conversations About Sexual Trauma - Katy Perkins, LCSW
This session will cover important information about sexual assault, its impacts, and context. Further, participants will learn about how to have basic conversations with children about sexuality and consent and identify the impact of personal biases and history when discussing trauma, especially with children.
(C) Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Youth in Foster & Adoptive Families - Karey Scheyd, MPA
Adoption advocates, staff, and caregivers are an extremely diverse community of people with one thing in common: the desire to love, nurture, and care for children and youth. Many people involved in the adoption world may not realize that LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in foster care and are at higher risks of rejection, victimization, and other harmful outcomes. This session will first explain key terms and concepts that all adults need to know in order to better understand LGBTQ youth. Participants will then be presented with research on the critical importance of providing affirming homes for these young people, as well as concrete tips for how to embrace and support the population.
3:45pm – 4:00pm Networking Break (visit exhibit booths and bookstore)
4:00pm – 5:15pm Session 3 1.25 CEUs
(A) Equal Access to Original Birth Certificates: Fighting for Our Rights in the State of Texas - Joellen Peters, PhD, Texas Adoptee Rights President
As Texas continues the campaign to restore Original Birth Certificate access next legislative session, this presentation will highlight the current laws in Texas, as well as the history of the fight for OBC access in the State of Texas. Attendees will learn about the rationale to alter birth certificates, the psychological implications of secrecy and lack of information, and discover the problems adult adoptees have with altered birth certificates. Learn a bit about the legislative process and how and why to get involved.
(B) Foster Care Workshop - Chelsy Alexander
Saturday, October 24th
9:00am – 9:30am Welcome
9:30am – 11:45am Keynote 2.25 CEUs
"NAVIGATING THE INTERSECTIONS OF TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION" - Torrey E. Carroll, MA, LPC & Nikki M. Carroll, MA, LPC, Founders of The TNC Psychotherapy Group, PLLC (Dallas, Texas)
The decision to adopt across racial/cultural lines is a lifelong commitment to exploring matters of race, confronting racism in all its forms and constantly developing new skills and aptitudes. Transracial Adoptions are increasing in the U.S. With the creative work by and for Transracial Adoptees, this phenomenon is shining a light on the unique challenges of raising children of color in homes different from their culture or origin.
This keynote will encourage participants to have sustained and healthy discussions about race and culture. Participants will also increase awareness about the difference between intent and impact, develop strategies for identifying and curbing micro-aggressions and gain a deeper understanding of the responsibility of parenting transracially. This dialogue will not support a “color-blind,” but rather a “color-affirming” approach, and provide developmentally sensitive tools and resources to create a sense of hope and offer a deeper understanding of how families can support transracial adoptees as they grow through the development stages of racial awareness and identity.
12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch
(On your own or on-site if meal plan purchased during registration)
1:00pm – 2:15pm Session 1 1.25 CEUs
(A) Odd One Out: Cultivating Community, Identity, and Acceptance - Erin Smith, former Director of Adoption Svcs at AAI & Lilly Schmaltz, PhD Candidate in Cellular and Molecular Biology
Life for transracial and international adoptees is often fraught with the challenge of finding a place where they belong. Many adoptees choose to take on the gargantuan task of reclaiming the birth culture they’ve lost, while others avoid birth culture engagement out of fear of somehow betraying their adoptive family, feeling impostor syndrome among their race, or simply a lack of desire. Alternately, assimilating to the culture of the adoptive family can prove to be just as complex an undertaking. Both worlds often leave the adoptee feeling inadequate. This workshop will explore the more subtle cultural losses for transracial and international adoptees as well as suggest strategies for creating safe spaces where adoptees can develop their own cultural identity and find acceptance.
(B) Waiting, Creating, and Finding Family: Past, Present, and Fiction - Suzanne Gilbert, Author
This presentation will be a mix of Gilbert’s personal discoveries on the rewarding journey of search & reunion, as well as a slightly more academic overview of adoptee archetypes from psychology, literary criticism, and philosophy that she’s gained from reading hundreds of fiction and non-fiction works involving adoption/fostering, search, and reunion.
(C) Ethical and Competent Professional Adoption Services - Patricia Martinez-Dorner, MA, LPC (Ethics CEUs)
This presentation will examine the importance of ethical and competent services in adoption. Professionals must be well equipped with knowledge of the complexities for all parties involved with adoption. What are the critical issues for all parties living with adoption? What are the benefits and challenges of open and closed adoptions? What ethical and responsive services best meet the needs of all involved over time? We will examine these questions and more, striving to optimize lifetime outcomes of the adoption journey.
2:15pm – 2:30pm Break & Networking (visit exhibit booths and bookstore)
2:30pm – 3:45pm Session 2 1.25 CEUs
(A) Male Adoptee Workshop - Rich Urlaub, M. Ed.C.
(B) Making the Invisible Visible - Arin Marx, Transracial Adoptee & Dee Gardner-Wilson, LCSW, LCDC
The transracial adoption experience is traumatic and very complex even when an adoptee is placed in an “ideal” family scenario. Despite obstacles, transracial adoptees can transcend challenges and thrive. This session explores how international adoptees or transracial adoptees perceive the world differently via decades of biological adaptations and cultural heritage; the effects of the transracial adoptees experience (both internal and external); and strategies and tools for navigating the experience.
(C) Intersections of Unresolved Grief, Mental & Behavioral Health, and Adoption - Erin Spalding, LCSW
Unresolved grief causes many behavioral and mental health issues, yet frequently goes unaddressed in cases of adoption. Adoption is typically viewed as a happy time, which leads others to overlook the loss that is intrinsic to this life-changing experience. This presentation will guide participants on a discovery of how to expand the conversation with children and families affected by adoption. Participants will leave the session with a broader understanding of how grief impacts children and families and insight about activities that promote healing.
3:45pm – 4:00pm Break & Networking (visit exhibit booths and bookstore)
4:00pm – 5:15pm Session 3 1.25 CEUs
(A) Navigating the Complexities of Adoption (Reunion) - Daryn and Christine Watson, Life Coaches
Reunions of any sort are full of intense emotions and uncertainty. Learn WHY you feel the way you do and how to change it if you choose. Daryn and Christine Watson will teach you a powerful tool that will help you navigate your thoughts and feelings around your reunion, no matter if your reunion was years ago, recently, or is still yet to come.
(B) Flipping the Script on The Adoptee Narrative: Who Am I & Where Do I Belong - MelAnn Morales, Writer
This session will focus on one of the top life crises an adoptee faces, the identity crisis and finding a place to belong. We will explore a personal account of an adoptee’s search for her birth family & what she discovered once she found them, as well as the power of stories when it comes to identity. The session is meant to help adoptees claim their identity and gain a sense of belonging when they don’t have access to their birth families.
(C) Group Therapy 101 - Pam Greenstone, MA, LPC
This session will cover the basics of group therapy. Participants will learn the benefits of group psychotherapy and support groups; know how to find group therapy and support group options in Austin and beyond; and have an actual support group experience.
* Schedule subject to change.
9:30am – 11:45am Keynote 2.25 CEUs
"NAVIGATING THE INTERSECTIONS OF TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION" - Torrey E. Carroll, MA, LPC & Nikki M. Carroll, MA, LPC, Founders of The TNC Psychotherapy Group, PLLC (Dallas, Texas)
The decision to adopt across racial/cultural lines is a lifelong commitment to exploring matters of race, confronting racism in all its forms and constantly developing new skills and aptitudes. Transracial Adoptions are increasing in the U.S. With the creative work by and for Transracial Adoptees, this phenomenon is shining a light on the unique challenges of raising children of color in homes different from their culture or origin.
This keynote will encourage participants to have sustained and healthy discussions about race and culture. Participants will also increase awareness about the difference between intent and impact, develop strategies for identifying and curbing micro-aggressions and gain a deeper understanding of the responsibility of parenting transracially. This dialogue will not support a “color-blind,” but rather a “color-affirming” approach, and provide developmentally sensitive tools and resources to create a sense of hope and offer a deeper understanding of how families can support transracial adoptees as they grow through the development stages of racial awareness and identity.
12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch
(On your own or on-site if meal plan purchased during registration)
1:00pm – 2:15pm Session 1 1.25 CEUs
(A) Odd One Out: Cultivating Community, Identity, and Acceptance - Erin Smith, former Director of Adoption Svcs at AAI & Lilly Schmaltz, PhD Candidate in Cellular and Molecular Biology
Life for transracial and international adoptees is often fraught with the challenge of finding a place where they belong. Many adoptees choose to take on the gargantuan task of reclaiming the birth culture they’ve lost, while others avoid birth culture engagement out of fear of somehow betraying their adoptive family, feeling impostor syndrome among their race, or simply a lack of desire. Alternately, assimilating to the culture of the adoptive family can prove to be just as complex an undertaking. Both worlds often leave the adoptee feeling inadequate. This workshop will explore the more subtle cultural losses for transracial and international adoptees as well as suggest strategies for creating safe spaces where adoptees can develop their own cultural identity and find acceptance.
(B) Waiting, Creating, and Finding Family: Past, Present, and Fiction - Suzanne Gilbert, Author
This presentation will be a mix of Gilbert’s personal discoveries on the rewarding journey of search & reunion, as well as a slightly more academic overview of adoptee archetypes from psychology, literary criticism, and philosophy that she’s gained from reading hundreds of fiction and non-fiction works involving adoption/fostering, search, and reunion.
(C) Ethical and Competent Professional Adoption Services - Patricia Martinez-Dorner, MA, LPC (Ethics CEUs)
This presentation will examine the importance of ethical and competent services in adoption. Professionals must be well equipped with knowledge of the complexities for all parties involved with adoption. What are the critical issues for all parties living with adoption? What are the benefits and challenges of open and closed adoptions? What ethical and responsive services best meet the needs of all involved over time? We will examine these questions and more, striving to optimize lifetime outcomes of the adoption journey.
2:15pm – 2:30pm Break & Networking (visit exhibit booths and bookstore)
2:30pm – 3:45pm Session 2 1.25 CEUs
(A) Male Adoptee Workshop - Rich Urlaub, M. Ed.C.
(B) Making the Invisible Visible - Arin Marx, Transracial Adoptee & Dee Gardner-Wilson, LCSW, LCDC
The transracial adoption experience is traumatic and very complex even when an adoptee is placed in an “ideal” family scenario. Despite obstacles, transracial adoptees can transcend challenges and thrive. This session explores how international adoptees or transracial adoptees perceive the world differently via decades of biological adaptations and cultural heritage; the effects of the transracial adoptees experience (both internal and external); and strategies and tools for navigating the experience.
(C) Intersections of Unresolved Grief, Mental & Behavioral Health, and Adoption - Erin Spalding, LCSW
Unresolved grief causes many behavioral and mental health issues, yet frequently goes unaddressed in cases of adoption. Adoption is typically viewed as a happy time, which leads others to overlook the loss that is intrinsic to this life-changing experience. This presentation will guide participants on a discovery of how to expand the conversation with children and families affected by adoption. Participants will leave the session with a broader understanding of how grief impacts children and families and insight about activities that promote healing.
3:45pm – 4:00pm Break & Networking (visit exhibit booths and bookstore)
4:00pm – 5:15pm Session 3 1.25 CEUs
(A) Navigating the Complexities of Adoption (Reunion) - Daryn and Christine Watson, Life Coaches
Reunions of any sort are full of intense emotions and uncertainty. Learn WHY you feel the way you do and how to change it if you choose. Daryn and Christine Watson will teach you a powerful tool that will help you navigate your thoughts and feelings around your reunion, no matter if your reunion was years ago, recently, or is still yet to come.
(B) Flipping the Script on The Adoptee Narrative: Who Am I & Where Do I Belong - MelAnn Morales, Writer
This session will focus on one of the top life crises an adoptee faces, the identity crisis and finding a place to belong. We will explore a personal account of an adoptee’s search for her birth family & what she discovered once she found them, as well as the power of stories when it comes to identity. The session is meant to help adoptees claim their identity and gain a sense of belonging when they don’t have access to their birth families.
(C) Group Therapy 101 - Pam Greenstone, MA, LPC
This session will cover the basics of group therapy. Participants will learn the benefits of group psychotherapy and support groups; know how to find group therapy and support group options in Austin and beyond; and have an actual support group experience.
* Schedule subject to change.
Speakers
Torrey E. Carroll, MA, LPC + Nikki M. Carroll, MA, LPC Founders, The TNC Psychotherapy Group, PLLC
Partners in life and work. Nikki and Torrey Carroll believe in the redemptive power of relationships. They have championed the cause for more than a decade by walking alongside marriages and families as they heal and grow. As adoptive parents and psychotherapists, they understand and respect both the pressures involved in building a family, coupled with the unique gifts and learning experiences that the adoption dynamic brings.
The Carrolls are frequent speakers at conferences and have extensive experience collaborating with non-profit organizations, agencies and community ambassadors to develop programming that revitalize and enrich individuals and family systems. Their clinical training and specializations include marriage and family therapy, crisis intervention, trauma, and adoption-sensitive therapy, including parenting skills within the adoption triad and transracial adoption issues. Their clinical experience extends to working with individuals of all ages who are connected to the child welfare system such as adoptees, first families, adoptive families and caregivers. Nikki and Torrey are founding Board members of Relationships First™ and Safe Conversations® Master Trainers. They have been featured in a number of publications and news media including Success Magazine, WFAA’s Daybreak, and CBS’s Plugged Into DFW, and co-hosted the Safe Conversations® Practice and Share DVD alongside Imago relationship therapy co-creators.
Prior to becoming Licensed Professional Counselors, Nikki and Torrey successfully managed a 20- year career within corporate America. Nikki holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Baylor University, a Master of Arts degree in Professional Counseling and a Master of Arts Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Amberton University. Torrey holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from The University of Texas at Dallas, a Master of Arts degree in Professional Counseling, and a Master of Arts Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Amberton University.
The Carrolls have been married for twenty years. Their journey has been filled with rich experiences that have varied from softly spoken messages, to loud and obnoxious life lessons on how to manage and maintain a healthy marriage. The Carrolls reside in a suburb of Dallas and call it an honor to be the parents of two ‘wonder-filled’ children. As a husband, wife, and parents of two, they bring extensive life experience and a heart for supporting and serving families in the foster care and adoption community.
Chelsy Alexander, LMSW, with background working with children, youth, and families in diverse settings. Experience includes recruiting, working with and training foster and adoptive families from diverse settings,biopsychosocial assessments in school and hospital settings, crisis intervention, case management, coordinating, and group facilitation. Currently I serve as the Program Coordinator for a new initiative to increase the number and diversity of healing families in Central Texas. The backbone support of the initiative is provided by Partnerships for Children.
Sharon Cloninger, is new to the Board of Support Texas Adoptee Rights (STAR). She is a paternal birth
grandmother who met her 9-year-old granddaughter for the first time in 2010. She’s been
blessed to be in an open relationship with her granddaughter and her adoptive family ever since.
Sharon mostly grew up in Peru and New Orleans, coming of age in the Watergate era. She took
her cue from Woodward and Bernstein to graduate from Baylor with a double major in
journalism and political science. Subsequently, she edited an English-language newspaper in
Norway for American and Canadian expatriates who worked in the North Sea oil industry; wrote
for Baha’i publications in Wilmette, Illinois; was a journalist with the Austin American-
Statesman; and worked in State Comptroller Bob Bullock’s public information office before a
mid-life career switch. True to the adage, Sharon’s life began again at 40. That year, the single mother of three sons
graduated from the UT School of Law and became engaged to her landlord Tom. He and Sharon
will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in June.
Sharon worked as an attorney for the Department of Public Safety from 1994 until 2000, and as
an Administrative Law Judge with the State Office of Administrative Hearings until retiring in
2017. She’s currently a member of the local Sierra Club’s social media team, an aspiring novelist, and
a hopeful blues guitarist. She has six grandchildren in total.
Dee Gardner-Wilson, LCSW, LCDC and CSAT is a professional speaker, educator, workshop facilitator, trauma treatment consultant, author Sex Addiction Specialist, and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) therapist with over a decade of experience. Specialties include CPTSD, PTSD, trauma, abuse, chronic pain recovery, Partners of sex addicts, and other severe emotional issues with a special focus on Trauma Bonded Relationships. Her unique approaches include EMDR, Psychodrama, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and customized models to meet client specific needs. Prolonged stress, emotional or physical, and pain cause an individual to experience distress and trauma symptoms. Dee believes in an experiential treatment approach to address the ‘whole’ person, emotional and physical, in conjunction with the traditional cognitive therapy approach.
Renee Gelin, President, Saving our Sisters (SOS) After losing her son to a devastating unnecessary adoption Renee discovered her purpose – to help other mothers avoid unnecessarily separating from their newborn babies and helping them preserve their families. She began reaching out and connecting with others in the online adoption community for support. Renee started speaking to other expectant mothers and realized that many of the reasons that they were considering adoption, were similar to hers – temporary. She started to explain the lifelong trauma that maternal separation causes both the mothers and their newborns and the mothers were listening. Many in the adoption community began to see the moms with their babies and began to support her efforts of family preservation. Others online began to direct mothers considering adoption to speak with Renee and the concept of Saving Our Sisters became a reality. Renee married her son’s father and together they parent their 2 daughters in Florida.
Suzanne Gilbert, Author recently served as Keynote for both the 39th Annual Adoptive Parents Committee Conference in NYC as well as for the annual luncheon of the National Council of Jewish Women-Metrowest where she also spoke in 2015. She has led and served on workshops, speaker presentations, multiple adoption panels, and written fiction with adoption themes. Venues and recognition include: 2019 Author Roundtable at the 40th annual American Adoption Congress in Washington, D.C.; 2019 and 2018 guest speaker at Ethical Culture Society of Maplewood on Searches in Literature & Religion; 2019 workshop on making a gratitude practice at The Center for Spirituality; 2014 performance for "The Moth" storySlam; St. John's University presenter at The Adoption Initiative conference; and numerous adoption-related panels or discussions including ones hosted by her own “alma mater”, the Spence-Chapin Adoption Agency. Suzanne is taking a break from a career in cyber security to focus on writing a series of cybercrime procedurals and has a prequl, the adoption quest novel Tapioca Fire, which was selected as one of four recommended books for 2014 by Concerned People for Adoption (CPFA). Her shorter works of fiction and non-fiction have been included in anthologies and literary magazines. She curates a Facebook page with over 7,000 organic/unpaid readers as of mid 2019 that highlights both fiction and non-fiction on adoption, fostering, and other cultural topics @Suzanne Gilbert.Author. Her personal observations there are based on a love of reading and parenting a blended family with three now grown boys who are adoptees like herself
Pam Greenstone, MA, LPC Deep Roots Counseling Llc is a counselor in private practice in North Austin and has been facilitating therapy groups since 2002 and participating in therapy groups for over 18 years. She is currently in her second term on the board of the
Austin Group Psychotherapy Society (AGPS) and served as the AGPS president in 2008.
Katy Perkins, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice, providing therapy, professional training, case consultation and policy analysis in Texas, Illinois, and Colorado. Katy specializes in sexual and domestic violence, post-adoption, cultural competence, LGBT populations, and childhood trauma. Katy has provided educational and training sessions about trauma, cultural competence, adoption, end of life decision making, and more, for over fifteen years. She is committed to bridging social justice movements and advocating for traditionally marginalized populations. She was a founding board member of STAR (Support TX Adoptee Rights), now serving as a member of the Advisory Board, a member of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, the Texas Council for Family Violence, the National Association of Social Workers, and Adoption Knowledge Affiliates. Her experience includes community, state, and national level advocacy as a leader and volunteer. Katy was selected as the 2014 Black Trans Men Inc. Ally of the Year, nominated for Altrusa Richardson 2018 Healthcare Professional of the year, and selected as the NASW-North Central Texas Dallas Area 2018 Social Worker of the Year.
MelAnn Morales is a story narrative coach as well as an adoptee & a birth mother. After her own exhaustive search for her birth family, she realized she was seeking identity and belonging. Once she found her birth family, she realized how much we really have access in our own DNA; as well as the healing power of birth family stories and the important role they play when it comes to our own identity and belonging. MelAnn has written her memoir about her search as an adoptee and all that the journey revealed along the way.
Patricia Martinez Dorner, MA, LPC, a pioneer in open adoption and post adoption services, has been a relentless proponent of adoption reform. Her adoption focused practice includes education, support and training to individuals and professionals. She is a frequent conference speaker and author of many adoption related books. The adoptive mother of 2 adult daughters, she lives adoption personally and professionally.
Arin Marx is an international adoptee from Korea with a transracial family and disrupted adoption experience. As an aspiring mental health professional, she is navigating the process of developing her own racial and cultural identity. She is learning to balance how she sees herself against others’ perceptions or expectations of her. She is finding passion in advocating for adoptees by educating/cultivating awareness and growth in the adoption community about the transracial and international adoptee experience. Arin is finally discovering empowerment beneath the pain of her transracial adoptee life experience from connections made with other international adoptees. She finds solidarity through the pain of shared life experience and the courage to address the intersection of race and adoption.
Joellen Peters is a psychologist, mother of 2 teenage boys, and an adoptee rights advocate. She is past president on the Board of Directors for AKA, current president of Support Texas Adoptee Rights (STAR) and is a reunited adoptee who found her birth parents approximately 20 years ago. Dr. Peters initially began working with families affected by adoption when she went through her own adoption reunion. She now works with adult adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families in her private practice. Joellen’s initial advocacy work started in 2015 when she began talking with legislators at the Capitol in Austin. In 2017 she became more involved with both testimony and more assistance to STAR.
Lilly Schmaltz was adopted from China to the US in 1995. After realizing she is one of the older Chinese adoptees, she has dedicated much of her time to advocating for adoptees’ rights and educating the general public about the complexities of transracial adoption. In addition to advocacy on YouTube and Instagram, she is the founder and co-leader of the Adopteen Austin chapter. Outside of advocacy, she’s currently pursuing her PhD in cell and molecular biology and enjoys spending time with her dog and cat!
Karey Scheyd, MPA is a nonprofit management consultant with particular expertise in foster care, adoption, and LGBTQ services. She has been a National Advisory Council member and consultant for the Human Rights Campaign’s All Children – All Families (ACAF) program since 2007 and has served as the National Training Manager for ACAF since 2013, providing training and technical assistance on LGBTQ services to child welfare organizations across the country. In her spare time, you can find Karey traveling the world with her partner, Irfan, or spending quality time with her dog, Ruby. Karey is a proud graduate of Mount Holyoke College and NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, and is currently working on a Master of Arts in Counseling degree at St. Edward’s University.
Erin Smith was adopted from an orphanage in Kerala, India in 1987 when she was 20 months old. She is a transracial adoptee, raised by her adoptive parents in Snellville, GA. She worked as an adoption professional for 10 years before recently becoming a mom. She is now soaking in every moment of knowing a biological relative for the first time. She has submitted her DNA and has been fortunate enough to connect with distant relatives but remains hopeful that she may one day find her immediate birth family.
Erin Spalding, LCSW, is the Program Director of The Christi Center, a non-profit grief support center. She has over 11 years of clinical experience supporting grieving kids, teens, and adults, while developing programs to strengthen the community’s capacity to serve all those in grief. She is also an adjunct professor at the UT Steve Hicks School of Social Work, teaching Group Intervention, Grief Counseling and Grief & Loss Individual, Family and Cultural Perspectives.
Rich Uhrlaub, M.Ed. has been dedicated to support and effective advocacy for the interests of adults impacted by relinquishment and adoption for over 20 years and currently serves as ASRC President. He has served on the boards of Adoptees in Search - Colorado's Triad Connection, the American Adoption Congress, and the Colorado Adoption Intermediary Commission. Relinquished and adopted at three weeks old, Rich located and connected with his family of origin in 1995. In addition, Rich has testified before legislative committees and presented and facilitated at various conferences nationwide. He has been interviewed for local and national radio, television and newspaper stories. Rich is a contributing author to Finding Our Place: 100 Memorable Adoptees, Fostered Persons and Orphanage Alumni (2010), Adoption and Mothering (2012), and the Bastard Chronicles (2017). His professional background includes leading the Learning Solutions Team and Management Competencies Program for an international technology firm; telecommunications and digital marketing sales; and medical-legal claims and risk management in the private and public sectors.
Christine Watson is a life coach certified through The Life Coach School. She is trained in using and teaching The Model, a powerful coaching tool used to help bring awareness and healing to her clients. She has experienced tremendous transformation using The Model and wants to share her knowledge and experience with others so they can have the same results.
Daryn Watson is a life coach for adoptees and holds a degree in social psychology. He is a reunited adoptee with both his maternal and paternal families. He is a contributing author to The Adoptee Survival Guide, Flip the Script: Adult Adoptee Anthology, and has been published in Adoption Today Magazine.
Partners in life and work. Nikki and Torrey Carroll believe in the redemptive power of relationships. They have championed the cause for more than a decade by walking alongside marriages and families as they heal and grow. As adoptive parents and psychotherapists, they understand and respect both the pressures involved in building a family, coupled with the unique gifts and learning experiences that the adoption dynamic brings.
The Carrolls are frequent speakers at conferences and have extensive experience collaborating with non-profit organizations, agencies and community ambassadors to develop programming that revitalize and enrich individuals and family systems. Their clinical training and specializations include marriage and family therapy, crisis intervention, trauma, and adoption-sensitive therapy, including parenting skills within the adoption triad and transracial adoption issues. Their clinical experience extends to working with individuals of all ages who are connected to the child welfare system such as adoptees, first families, adoptive families and caregivers. Nikki and Torrey are founding Board members of Relationships First™ and Safe Conversations® Master Trainers. They have been featured in a number of publications and news media including Success Magazine, WFAA’s Daybreak, and CBS’s Plugged Into DFW, and co-hosted the Safe Conversations® Practice and Share DVD alongside Imago relationship therapy co-creators.
Prior to becoming Licensed Professional Counselors, Nikki and Torrey successfully managed a 20- year career within corporate America. Nikki holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Baylor University, a Master of Arts degree in Professional Counseling and a Master of Arts Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Amberton University. Torrey holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from The University of Texas at Dallas, a Master of Arts degree in Professional Counseling, and a Master of Arts Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Amberton University.
The Carrolls have been married for twenty years. Their journey has been filled with rich experiences that have varied from softly spoken messages, to loud and obnoxious life lessons on how to manage and maintain a healthy marriage. The Carrolls reside in a suburb of Dallas and call it an honor to be the parents of two ‘wonder-filled’ children. As a husband, wife, and parents of two, they bring extensive life experience and a heart for supporting and serving families in the foster care and adoption community.
Chelsy Alexander, LMSW, with background working with children, youth, and families in diverse settings. Experience includes recruiting, working with and training foster and adoptive families from diverse settings,biopsychosocial assessments in school and hospital settings, crisis intervention, case management, coordinating, and group facilitation. Currently I serve as the Program Coordinator for a new initiative to increase the number and diversity of healing families in Central Texas. The backbone support of the initiative is provided by Partnerships for Children.
Sharon Cloninger, is new to the Board of Support Texas Adoptee Rights (STAR). She is a paternal birth
grandmother who met her 9-year-old granddaughter for the first time in 2010. She’s been
blessed to be in an open relationship with her granddaughter and her adoptive family ever since.
Sharon mostly grew up in Peru and New Orleans, coming of age in the Watergate era. She took
her cue from Woodward and Bernstein to graduate from Baylor with a double major in
journalism and political science. Subsequently, she edited an English-language newspaper in
Norway for American and Canadian expatriates who worked in the North Sea oil industry; wrote
for Baha’i publications in Wilmette, Illinois; was a journalist with the Austin American-
Statesman; and worked in State Comptroller Bob Bullock’s public information office before a
mid-life career switch. True to the adage, Sharon’s life began again at 40. That year, the single mother of three sons
graduated from the UT School of Law and became engaged to her landlord Tom. He and Sharon
will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in June.
Sharon worked as an attorney for the Department of Public Safety from 1994 until 2000, and as
an Administrative Law Judge with the State Office of Administrative Hearings until retiring in
2017. She’s currently a member of the local Sierra Club’s social media team, an aspiring novelist, and
a hopeful blues guitarist. She has six grandchildren in total.
Dee Gardner-Wilson, LCSW, LCDC and CSAT is a professional speaker, educator, workshop facilitator, trauma treatment consultant, author Sex Addiction Specialist, and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) therapist with over a decade of experience. Specialties include CPTSD, PTSD, trauma, abuse, chronic pain recovery, Partners of sex addicts, and other severe emotional issues with a special focus on Trauma Bonded Relationships. Her unique approaches include EMDR, Psychodrama, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and customized models to meet client specific needs. Prolonged stress, emotional or physical, and pain cause an individual to experience distress and trauma symptoms. Dee believes in an experiential treatment approach to address the ‘whole’ person, emotional and physical, in conjunction with the traditional cognitive therapy approach.
Renee Gelin, President, Saving our Sisters (SOS) After losing her son to a devastating unnecessary adoption Renee discovered her purpose – to help other mothers avoid unnecessarily separating from their newborn babies and helping them preserve their families. She began reaching out and connecting with others in the online adoption community for support. Renee started speaking to other expectant mothers and realized that many of the reasons that they were considering adoption, were similar to hers – temporary. She started to explain the lifelong trauma that maternal separation causes both the mothers and their newborns and the mothers were listening. Many in the adoption community began to see the moms with their babies and began to support her efforts of family preservation. Others online began to direct mothers considering adoption to speak with Renee and the concept of Saving Our Sisters became a reality. Renee married her son’s father and together they parent their 2 daughters in Florida.
Suzanne Gilbert, Author recently served as Keynote for both the 39th Annual Adoptive Parents Committee Conference in NYC as well as for the annual luncheon of the National Council of Jewish Women-Metrowest where she also spoke in 2015. She has led and served on workshops, speaker presentations, multiple adoption panels, and written fiction with adoption themes. Venues and recognition include: 2019 Author Roundtable at the 40th annual American Adoption Congress in Washington, D.C.; 2019 and 2018 guest speaker at Ethical Culture Society of Maplewood on Searches in Literature & Religion; 2019 workshop on making a gratitude practice at The Center for Spirituality; 2014 performance for "The Moth" storySlam; St. John's University presenter at The Adoption Initiative conference; and numerous adoption-related panels or discussions including ones hosted by her own “alma mater”, the Spence-Chapin Adoption Agency. Suzanne is taking a break from a career in cyber security to focus on writing a series of cybercrime procedurals and has a prequl, the adoption quest novel Tapioca Fire, which was selected as one of four recommended books for 2014 by Concerned People for Adoption (CPFA). Her shorter works of fiction and non-fiction have been included in anthologies and literary magazines. She curates a Facebook page with over 7,000 organic/unpaid readers as of mid 2019 that highlights both fiction and non-fiction on adoption, fostering, and other cultural topics @Suzanne Gilbert.Author. Her personal observations there are based on a love of reading and parenting a blended family with three now grown boys who are adoptees like herself
Pam Greenstone, MA, LPC Deep Roots Counseling Llc is a counselor in private practice in North Austin and has been facilitating therapy groups since 2002 and participating in therapy groups for over 18 years. She is currently in her second term on the board of the
Austin Group Psychotherapy Society (AGPS) and served as the AGPS president in 2008.
Katy Perkins, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice, providing therapy, professional training, case consultation and policy analysis in Texas, Illinois, and Colorado. Katy specializes in sexual and domestic violence, post-adoption, cultural competence, LGBT populations, and childhood trauma. Katy has provided educational and training sessions about trauma, cultural competence, adoption, end of life decision making, and more, for over fifteen years. She is committed to bridging social justice movements and advocating for traditionally marginalized populations. She was a founding board member of STAR (Support TX Adoptee Rights), now serving as a member of the Advisory Board, a member of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, the Texas Council for Family Violence, the National Association of Social Workers, and Adoption Knowledge Affiliates. Her experience includes community, state, and national level advocacy as a leader and volunteer. Katy was selected as the 2014 Black Trans Men Inc. Ally of the Year, nominated for Altrusa Richardson 2018 Healthcare Professional of the year, and selected as the NASW-North Central Texas Dallas Area 2018 Social Worker of the Year.
MelAnn Morales is a story narrative coach as well as an adoptee & a birth mother. After her own exhaustive search for her birth family, she realized she was seeking identity and belonging. Once she found her birth family, she realized how much we really have access in our own DNA; as well as the healing power of birth family stories and the important role they play when it comes to our own identity and belonging. MelAnn has written her memoir about her search as an adoptee and all that the journey revealed along the way.
Patricia Martinez Dorner, MA, LPC, a pioneer in open adoption and post adoption services, has been a relentless proponent of adoption reform. Her adoption focused practice includes education, support and training to individuals and professionals. She is a frequent conference speaker and author of many adoption related books. The adoptive mother of 2 adult daughters, she lives adoption personally and professionally.
Arin Marx is an international adoptee from Korea with a transracial family and disrupted adoption experience. As an aspiring mental health professional, she is navigating the process of developing her own racial and cultural identity. She is learning to balance how she sees herself against others’ perceptions or expectations of her. She is finding passion in advocating for adoptees by educating/cultivating awareness and growth in the adoption community about the transracial and international adoptee experience. Arin is finally discovering empowerment beneath the pain of her transracial adoptee life experience from connections made with other international adoptees. She finds solidarity through the pain of shared life experience and the courage to address the intersection of race and adoption.
Joellen Peters is a psychologist, mother of 2 teenage boys, and an adoptee rights advocate. She is past president on the Board of Directors for AKA, current president of Support Texas Adoptee Rights (STAR) and is a reunited adoptee who found her birth parents approximately 20 years ago. Dr. Peters initially began working with families affected by adoption when she went through her own adoption reunion. She now works with adult adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families in her private practice. Joellen’s initial advocacy work started in 2015 when she began talking with legislators at the Capitol in Austin. In 2017 she became more involved with both testimony and more assistance to STAR.
Lilly Schmaltz was adopted from China to the US in 1995. After realizing she is one of the older Chinese adoptees, she has dedicated much of her time to advocating for adoptees’ rights and educating the general public about the complexities of transracial adoption. In addition to advocacy on YouTube and Instagram, she is the founder and co-leader of the Adopteen Austin chapter. Outside of advocacy, she’s currently pursuing her PhD in cell and molecular biology and enjoys spending time with her dog and cat!
Karey Scheyd, MPA is a nonprofit management consultant with particular expertise in foster care, adoption, and LGBTQ services. She has been a National Advisory Council member and consultant for the Human Rights Campaign’s All Children – All Families (ACAF) program since 2007 and has served as the National Training Manager for ACAF since 2013, providing training and technical assistance on LGBTQ services to child welfare organizations across the country. In her spare time, you can find Karey traveling the world with her partner, Irfan, or spending quality time with her dog, Ruby. Karey is a proud graduate of Mount Holyoke College and NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, and is currently working on a Master of Arts in Counseling degree at St. Edward’s University.
Erin Smith was adopted from an orphanage in Kerala, India in 1987 when she was 20 months old. She is a transracial adoptee, raised by her adoptive parents in Snellville, GA. She worked as an adoption professional for 10 years before recently becoming a mom. She is now soaking in every moment of knowing a biological relative for the first time. She has submitted her DNA and has been fortunate enough to connect with distant relatives but remains hopeful that she may one day find her immediate birth family.
Erin Spalding, LCSW, is the Program Director of The Christi Center, a non-profit grief support center. She has over 11 years of clinical experience supporting grieving kids, teens, and adults, while developing programs to strengthen the community’s capacity to serve all those in grief. She is also an adjunct professor at the UT Steve Hicks School of Social Work, teaching Group Intervention, Grief Counseling and Grief & Loss Individual, Family and Cultural Perspectives.
Rich Uhrlaub, M.Ed. has been dedicated to support and effective advocacy for the interests of adults impacted by relinquishment and adoption for over 20 years and currently serves as ASRC President. He has served on the boards of Adoptees in Search - Colorado's Triad Connection, the American Adoption Congress, and the Colorado Adoption Intermediary Commission. Relinquished and adopted at three weeks old, Rich located and connected with his family of origin in 1995. In addition, Rich has testified before legislative committees and presented and facilitated at various conferences nationwide. He has been interviewed for local and national radio, television and newspaper stories. Rich is a contributing author to Finding Our Place: 100 Memorable Adoptees, Fostered Persons and Orphanage Alumni (2010), Adoption and Mothering (2012), and the Bastard Chronicles (2017). His professional background includes leading the Learning Solutions Team and Management Competencies Program for an international technology firm; telecommunications and digital marketing sales; and medical-legal claims and risk management in the private and public sectors.
Christine Watson is a life coach certified through The Life Coach School. She is trained in using and teaching The Model, a powerful coaching tool used to help bring awareness and healing to her clients. She has experienced tremendous transformation using The Model and wants to share her knowledge and experience with others so they can have the same results.
Daryn Watson is a life coach for adoptees and holds a degree in social psychology. He is a reunited adoptee with both his maternal and paternal families. He is a contributing author to The Adoptee Survival Guide, Flip the Script: Adult Adoptee Anthology, and has been published in Adoption Today Magazine.
