Susan Branco Alvarado 
Susan Branco Alvarado is a Licensed Professional Counselor with more than 15 years experience providing mental health psychotherapy services for diverse populations with treatment needs ranging from severe mental illness to mild adjustment issues. She maintains an independent practice serving adopted persons, families, and first parents in the metropolitan DC area. She frequently presents on topics related to adoption counseling for local adoption agencies and national organizations, including JCICS. Her research on Colombian adoptees is included in 2007’s Handbook of Adoption. She is an instructor for the Institute for Families’ Office of Continuing Education, Clinical Adoption Certificate Program for Rutgers University and a board member of FACES of Virginia for Families: Foster, Adoption, and Kinship Association. Susan is also a doctoral student at Virginia Tech’s Counselor Education and Supervision program where she will pursue research related to effective adoption and foster care clinical services. Susan is an adopted person from Bogota, Colombia, South America.
A.J. Bryant
A.J. was born in India and adopted to the U.S as an infant. One of three adopted siblings from India, he has been involved in varying capacities in the adoption arena for six years. He is an adoption blogger, panelist and speaker around the DC metro region. A contributor to the Land of Gazillion Adoptees blog, he is also a published writer and former newspaper reporter. He was a former board member of the International Adoptee Congress, and a current member of the Indian adult adoptee group, Desi Adoptees United with participants scattered across the United States. He received his B.A in journalism from the University of Delaware and has a M.A in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University. He and his wife Sasmita whom he met in 2011 while interning in India, live in Washington, D.C.
Stephanie Kripa Cooper-Lewter 
Child welfare professional and Indian American adoptee, Stephanie Kripa Cooper-Lewter, Ph.D. is an adjunct faculty member at the University of South Carolina College of Social Work. She works as Senior Director of Research for a statewide foundation in the philanthropic sector. She is a Licensed Master Social Worker with over seventeen years work experience in the nonprofit, social service, health, and educational sector working with families from diverse cultures and heritages. Since 1994, she has served as a panel member and presenter for national adoption conferences, heritage camps and adoptive parent workshops, and is actively involved in the adult adoptee community. Her recent dissertation focused on analyzing the life stories of women who were transnationally and transracially adopted, exploring shifts in their identity throughout their life journey.
Astrid Dabbeni
Astrid is the Executive Director and co-founder of Adoption Mosaic. Astrid has a degree in sociology with an emphasis in adoption. She travels the country to lead youth groups, present workshops on transracial parenting, talking with children about adoption and various other workshops focusing on adoption. She is on the board of directors of the North American Council on Adoptable Children and authored many articles on the subject of adoption including being a chapter contributor in the book Parents As Adoptees. Astrid has worked in adoptions for over 20 years. Her life-long interest in adoption is rooted in her own adoption at the age of four with her older sister from Colombia.
Shannon Gibney
Shannon is a mixed Black, transracial adoptee writer, educator, and activist. Adopted in 1975 by white parents in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she is currently Co-Head (with Michelle Johnson) of the Minnesota Adopted & Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora (AFAAD) Chapter. She has written numerous creative and critical pieces on adoption, and is very active in the local adult transracial adoptee community. Chair of the Minneapolis Community & Technical College (MCTC) English Division, she lives in Minneapolis with her husband and son.
Shelise Gieseke
Shelise is a Korean adoptee with an undergraduate degree in communication and is interested in the way society shapes the adoptee experience through language. She was raised on a farm in southern Minnesota with three siblings who were not adopted. Shelise is excited to work with all members of the adoption constellation to create a safe and open learning environment.
Michelle K. Johnson
Michelle is African American who was born to a mother in the Minnesota Department of Corrections. She was placed in foster care directly from the hospital at one month old. She was adopted by Swedish Americans at two and a half. Her 1999 Master’s thesis is titled “Voices of Transracially Adopted Adults: Identity Development and Community Affiliation.” She appeared in the adoption education video “Struggles for Identity: Issues in Transracial Adoption” in 1997 and the 2007 follow-up “A Conversation 10 Years Later.” She was interviewed by Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes in 2005 about Canadian/Black adoptions in a segment called “Born in the USA.” She has worked at the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) as well as at several public and private adoption agencies as a social work supervisor. She is currently part of Haiti Family Preservation (Post earthquake policy reform) and Minnesota Coalition on Adoption Reform (Original birth records movement). She also co-founded MN’s chapter of Adopted and Fostered Adults from the African Diaspora in 2009. She works for the State of Minnesota as the volunteer coordinator for Minneapolis’ Guardian ad Litem/Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children- CASA Program. She is the proud aunt of 17 nieces and nephews, 10 adopted- most from Haiti or Korea.
JaeRan Kim
JaeRan Kim, MSW, LGSW, has worked in foster care/adoption (public/private), with at-risk young moms, and with adults with disabilities in residential care. JaeRan is currently a PhD Candidate and Project Coordinator at the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare at the School of Social Work, University of Minnesota where she was a Title IV-E Scholar and a Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disorders (LEND) Fellow.
Kelsey Hye Sun March
Kelsey was born in Korea and adopted to the United States. After graduating with a bachelors degree from Tufts University, she earned a masters degree at the University of Washington and studied and worked for several years in Korea as a Fulbright scholar and Blakemore Freeman fellow. While living in Korea, Kelsey interned with the Korean Public Interest Lawyers’ Group Gong-Gam where she assisted with drafting revisions to South Korea’s domestic and international adoption procedural laws and briefly worked at Korea Adoption Services, the Korean institution designated to monitor and audit adoption agencies in South Korea by the South Korean government. Kelsey currently resides in Washington, D.C. where she attends law school at American University and works as a litigation law clerk at Krooth & Altman LLP.
Robert O’Connor
Robert is an adult transracial adoptee of African-American descent. He and his older brother experienced multiple failed adoptions and foster care prior to being transracially adopted at the age of four. He grew up as part of one of the first generations of transracial adoptive families. Robert is a professor of social work at Metropolitan State University in MN, and is known nationally for his contributions to child welfare and cultural competence. He serves on the federal National Resource Center for Adoption’s Training and Technical Assistance team and is a frequent speaker and trainer on diversity related topics. He has used his life experiences to move from state ward to state ward administrator, from special ed. student, to college professor, and from cultural isolation to practice innovation. His is a story of perseverance, power, and promise.
Kevin Ost-Vollmers
Kevin is the founder of Land of Gazillion Adoptees (LGA). Through LGA, Kevin works closely with adoptees to run a popular multi-media blog. Kevin, along with Adam Rebholz of CQT Media And Publishing, is also a co-editor of the anthology Parenting As Adoptees. Additionally, Jared Rehberg and Kevin operate the adoptee-centric film website Watch Adoptee Films. In his previous life, Kevin studied communication at Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Minnesota, worked for Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota (LSS) and Children’s Home Society & Family Services (CHSFS), and fundraised for the George Washington University and Second Harvest Heartland.
Amanda H.L. Transue-Woolston
Amanda is a reunited adult adoptee, a Social Work student, a Case Manager for a community-based non-profit organization, a board member of The Adoptee Rights Coalition, and the founding member of Pennsylvania Adoptee Rights. She is a Blogher syndicated writer, the founding editor of Lost Daughters blog, and an editor at Land of Gazillion Adoptees. She has presented on Adoptee Rights at several major universities in Pennsylvania, and has provided feedback and testimony for Adoptee Rights legislation in more than seven States. Amanda is perhaps best known for her blog, The Declassified Adoptee, which was named a Top 20 Adoption Blog by Adoptive Families Magazine. Amanda was a Yahoo! Voices featured Mom Activist in 2011. She lives with her family in the greater Philadelphia area.
Sandy White Hawk
Sandy is a Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. She is the founder and Director of First Nations Repatriation Institute (formerly First Nations Orphan Association). First Nations Repatriation Institute is the first organization of it’s kind whose goal it is to create a resource for First Nations people impacted by foster care or adoption to return home, reconnect, and reclaim their identity. The Institute also serves as a resource to enhance the knowledge and skills of practitioners who serve First Nations people. Sandra organizes Truth Healing Reconciliation Community Forums that bring together adoptees/fostered individuals and their families and professionals with the goal to identify post adoption issues and to identify strategies that will prevent removal of First Nations children. She has also initiated an ongoing support group for adoptees and birth relatives in the Twin Citites Area, MN.
APRC 