Conference Keynotes & Speakers
Keynotes
Susan Ito, MFA
Susan Ito is the author of I Would Meet You Anywhere, a memoir from Machete Press. She co-edited the anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption). Her work has appeared in Growing Up Asian American, Choice, Literary Mama, The Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her theatrical adaption of Untold, stories of reproductive stigma, was produced at Brava Theater. She writes and teaches at the Writers’ Grotto, Mills College, and Bay Path University. Find her at www.thesusanito.com
Susan Ito is the author of I Would Meet You Anywhere, a memoir from Machete Press. She co-edited the anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption). Her work has appeared in Growing Up Asian American, Choice, Literary Mama, The Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her theatrical adaption of Untold, stories of reproductive stigma, was produced at Brava Theater. She writes and teaches at the Writers’ Grotto, Mills College, and Bay Path University. Find her at www.thesusanito.com
Andie Coston, LCSWA
Andie is an adoptee, adoptive parent, former foster parent, and a recent MSW graduate. Upon licensing, Andie will continue to work in foster care and adoption as a clinical therapist. Andie believes “Every Adoptee’s story is as unique and different as they are.”
Andie is an adoptee, adoptive parent, former foster parent, and a recent MSW graduate. Upon licensing, Andie will continue to work in foster care and adoption as a clinical therapist. Andie believes “Every Adoptee’s story is as unique and different as they are.”
Speakers
Jenni Alpert (Cami) is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist. She was born in Los Angeles, CA and adopted out of the foster care system at the age of four. She started to sing and play piano while in various foster homes and with the encouragement and support of her adoptive family she learned to play the guitar as well and began writing and recording songs early. Her emotionally driven songs weave a unique web of eclectic Soul-Americana Pop. With her honest rich songwriting and soothing musical melodies, songstress Jenni’s haunting sultry voice has gained the respect of fans and music tastemakers worldwide. As familiar with jazz and Americana as she is pop, Alpert graduated from UCLA in the Ethnomusicology Department after completing a four-year jazz program headed by Kenny Burrell. No stranger to the recording studio, Alpert has released 8 albums and has independently toured over 14 countries with regularity. Upon searching for, finding, and reuniting with her biological father who was homeless, addicted, and running from the law at the time, yet a musician just like her, upon their unexpected extraordinary connection and feats, a film team decided to make a short documentary entitled Homeless: the Soundtrack directed by Irene Taylor about the early stages of their story that unfold the journey of their biological reunion.
Currently, Jenni continues to join a range of nonprofits and support organizations that focus on homelessness, foster care, adoption, reunions, and the Adoption Constellation as keynote speaker, performer, and program developer in support of education, transformation, and healing.
Currently, Jenni continues to join a range of nonprofits and support organizations that focus on homelessness, foster care, adoption, reunions, and the Adoption Constellation as keynote speaker, performer, and program developer in support of education, transformation, and healing.
Amy Barker D'Alessandro, LMHC, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Group Facilitator, Clinical Supervisor, and Newsletter Editor for Concerned United Birthparents, Inc. She’s a closed adoption Adoptee in long-term reunion and has ongoing contact with her grown son of an open adoption.
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Jennifer Joy Phoenix, LSWAIC, completed her Masters in Social Work at Columbia University, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and is certified in Relationally-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Jennifer is a very involved birth/first mother and has a unique open adoption experience with her 21-year-old daughter, and her daughter's adoptive family.
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Amy and Jennifer are both in private practice in Washington State and are mothers of children lost to adoption. They work closely together as Adoption & Trauma Therapists, retreat facilitators, presenters, writers, and creatives (www.adoptionsavvy.com).
Rebecca Berg is a Registered Dietitian, adoptee, and writer. She runs a private practice specializing in helping humans let go of all-or-nothing thinking that keeps them trapped in eating extremes. Rebecca is a domestic, same-race, infant adoptee fully recovered from her own eating struggles. Rebecca hopes to bring more awareness to the rarely discussed and yet potent intersection between adoptees and eating disorders.
Liz DeBetta, PhD
Liz DeBetta, PhD is a scholar/artist/activist who is committed to changing systems and helping people navigate trauma through creative processes. She has published articles on adoptee narratives, has an award winning one-woman show called Un-M-Othered, and is the author of Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal: Migrating Toward Wholeness. www.LizDeBetta.com
Liz DeBetta, PhD is a scholar/artist/activist who is committed to changing systems and helping people navigate trauma through creative processes. She has published articles on adoptee narratives, has an award winning one-woman show called Un-M-Othered, and is the author of Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal: Migrating Toward Wholeness. www.LizDeBetta.com
Torie DiMartile holds both a BA and MA in Anthropology in Race/Ethnicity and Identity Formation. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Anthropology focusing on transracial adoption. Tori is a biracial Black woman who was placed into a white adoptive family through private domestic adoption as an infant. She grew up in a predominantly white town in Northern Kentucky where she navigated feeling isolated and alone in her racial identity.
Over the years, Torie began to ask questions and explore her own feelings around adoption. In 2018, Torie began to share her adoption story publicly through her Instagram micro-blog Wreckage and Wonder. Through her online presence she connected with transracial adoptees and found a community that understood her complex identity. Today she runs her micro-blog and small business, Wreckage and Wonder, LLC through which she provides educational workshops and consultations to individuals and organizations about transracial adoption, racial identity development, anti-racism, and the history of child welfare and adoption in the U.S.
Over the years, Torie began to ask questions and explore her own feelings around adoption. In 2018, Torie began to share her adoption story publicly through her Instagram micro-blog Wreckage and Wonder. Through her online presence she connected with transracial adoptees and found a community that understood her complex identity. Today she runs her micro-blog and small business, Wreckage and Wonder, LLC through which she provides educational workshops and consultations to individuals and organizations about transracial adoption, racial identity development, anti-racism, and the history of child welfare and adoption in the U.S.
Kara Rubinstein Deyerin, JD, LLM, is the co-founder and CEO of Right to Know and a leading advocate for genetic identity rights and anyone impacted by genetic identity discontinuity. She has appeared on many podcasts, in multiple television interviews and articles, and is a frequent speaker on her DNA surprise, the right to know, and the complex intersection of genetic information, identity, and family dynamics.
Danielle Gaudette is a Body & Brain coach and author of Healing Tree: An Adoptee’s Story About Hurting, Healing and Letting the Light Shine Through. After her reunion with her birth mother twenty-four years ago, she began an energy practice to process the unraveling of her primal wound. She is now a 20-year senior trainer and seeks to share those healing principles and practices to help others find the courage to go inward and heal their hearts.
Melissa Guida-Richards is an adoptee advocate, an educator, and the author of What White Parents Should Know About Transracial Adoption and the companion Workbook will be out this Summer. She founded the Adoptee Thoughts Instagram and Podcast to help elevate adoptee voices and educate adoptive parents on the nuances and complexity of adoption. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, NYT, Tamron Hall,
Good Day LA and has given workshops to dozens of adoption agencies for adoptive parents and adoption professionals. For more, check out AdopteeThoughts.com.
Good Day LA and has given workshops to dozens of adoption agencies for adoptive parents and adoption professionals. For more, check out AdopteeThoughts.com.
Barbara Herel holds a B.A. and is a writer exploring themes of motherhood, adoption, openness, navigating visits, birth siblings • Conference Speaker, Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York (AFFCNY) 2022 • Curator/host AFFCNY’s annual fundraising adoption-storytelling event 2022 and 2023 • Founder/producer Every Family’s Got One Storytelling show • Past NYC co-producer Listen To Your Mother, nationally acclaimed motherhood series • Writer for Adoptive Families magazine • Improv Mom blogger on AF’s social network • Contributing author, Tick Tock; Essays on Becoming a Parent After Forty • Writer, Navigating Adoption Podcast: Presented by AdoptUSKids • Mom, wife, and middle child (you bet she has stories to tell.
Sara Easterly, Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, and Lori Holden live, work, advocate, and lead in the adoption space in different ways, and together understand much of the history, challenges, and trends experienced by people living in adoption. In addition to co authoring a book, Adoption Unfiltered (December 2023), they host a podcast of the same name.
Joanna Mailani Lima, AMFT, is an AMFT in California who helps individuals and couples navigate life transitions. She specializes in exploring intersectional identities, as well as managing anxiety, depression, and grief. Her creative non-fiction writing has been published in the anthologies (Her)oics and Nonwhite and Woman. Joanna was laced in foster care after birth and adopted at nearly two years old.
Patricia Knight Meyer is an adoptee who reunited with both birth parents 13 years ago, Patricia possess a journalism degree from the University of Texas, has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines, and dedicates her life to inspiring creativity in others. Active in adoption and writing communities, she writes about her reunion experience at MyAdoptedLife.com and is the administer for the Adoption Constellation Search and Reunion Facebook support group. Patricia is a member of the National Association of Memoir Writers, Adoption Knowledge Affiliates, and The Writers’ League of Texas. Patricia's reunion story has been covered by the Huffington Post, The Austin American Statesman, and WHIV Radio in New Orleans. Patricia and her birth father presented at AKA in 2013, She will be speaking at the National Association of Adoptees and Parents (NAAP) Fall Retreat in Sept, 2023. Bouncing between the Texas Hill Country and New Orleans, she works as a book publicist and content strategist, attending an annual writing retreat in Costa Rica. A baby-scoop era black-market "adoptee," Patricia was sold along a curb outside a Texas hospital and grew up with no legal identity, date of birth, finalized adoption, or court appointed guardian. At 40, she reunited with both biological parents, and at 53 finished a memoir sharing how she uncovered the dirty deal that stole her true identity.
Dr. David McCarty-Caplan is a researcher, educator and advocate whose professional experience focuses on issues of identity development, support of underserved populations, racial equity, and pursuit of social justice. As a Colombian adoptee raised within a white Jewish family, David’s blend of lived and professional experience brings unique perspective to important conversations about challenges faced by transracial adoptees within white-dominant religious communities.
Beth Syverson is an adoptive mom of an adult adoptee son who has been struggling to find his healing path. Together, they created the Unraveling Adoption podcast. Beth is also the facilitator of APtitude: A support group for Adoptive Parents Facing Adoption’s Challenges. Beth advocates for adoptees and aims to destigmatize addiction and mental health. She is a certified coach (from The International Satir Coaching and Mentoring Specialist Program).
Rich Uhrlaub serves as president of the Coalition for Truth and Transparency in Adoption (CTTA) and Adoption Search Resource Connection (ASRC). He is part of an advocacy team that has seen over 15 Colorado bills signed into law since 2014 to the benefit of adult adoptees, foster youth, birth/first parents, and donor conceived persons. A frequent presenter at digital and in-person conferences, Rich’s interviews and writings have appeared in various news outlets. Rich is a contributing author of Finding Our Place: 100 Memorable Adoptees, Fostered Persons and Orphanage Alumni; and Adoption and Mothering. Most recently, Rich is the creator of the new musical For the Record(s) www.ftrmusical.com.
Max Weinberg has been a teacher and administrator in New York and Illinois schools. Max currently consults school leadership teams in Chicago and Milwaukee to maximize outcomes. He appreciates the complexity of schoolhouses and the varied learning that happens in classrooms and beyond. Max is an adoptive parent with his partner to two wonderful children. His family is a transracial adoptive family living outside of Chicago. Max's personal and professional life intersect through research on understanding optimal conditions and practices for supporting adopted/looked after children in school. He is a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Leadership at Concordia University Chicago.
Abbey and Alexa met in a structured therapeutic support group. They come from different backgrounds but have both found healing and empowerment in the context of the adoptee community. While their experiences and adoption journeys differ vastly, they both still have found healing through learning about and acknowledging their histories and heritages (passed down from biological and adoptive families).