Nancy Verrier is a mother, a former teacher, a psychotherapist, author, and lecturer. Her book, The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child has become a classic in adoption literature and is considered by adoptees to be their adoption bible. Nancy has received two awards for the publication of this book: The Book of the Year Award from the Council for Equal Rights in Adoption in 1993, and the Emma Vilardi Humanitarian Award from the American Adoption Congress in 2003. Nancy’s second book, Coming Home to Self, takes adoptees and those in relationship with them to the next step in healing. When one has been traumatized at the beginning of life, there is often very little awareness that coping behaviors are a result of that trauma, rather than indigenous aspects of the person. In order to overcome self-defeating behavior, one must become aware of the difference. This book is about becoming aware, authentic, and accountable-which should lead to more satisfying relationships. 

Nancy Verrier

Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, Ed.D., LCSW, LMFT, was the Founder and CEO of Center for Family Connections, Inc. in Cambridge and New York, Founder and Director of Riverside After Adoption Consulting and Training, PACT (Pre/Post Adoption Consulting and Training, and Pavao Consulting and Coaching. Dr. Pavao has done extensive training, both nationally and internationally. She is a lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and she has consulted to various public and private child welfare agencies, adoption agencies, schools, and community groups, as well as probate and family court judges, lawyers, and clergy. Additionally, she has worked closely with individuals and families touched by adoption, foster care, and other complex blended family constructions. She has developed models for treatment and for training using her systemic, intergenerational, and developmental framework, The Normative Crises in the Development of the Adoptive Family, and her book, The Family of Adoption, has received high acclaim. Dr. Pavao has received many awards and honors, including the Children’s Bureau/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Adoption Excellence Award for Family Contribution (2003) and the Congressional Coalition on Adoption award for Angels in Adoption (2000). 

Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao

Leslie Pate Mackinnon, LCSW maintains a psychotherapy practice in the Atlanta area. Her specialties include individual, group, and couples therapy, as well as expertise in third-party reproduction and adoption issues. Drawn to the field by her own experience of placing two sons in closed adoptions, Leslie’s story is included in the book; The Girls Who Went Away and the documentary A Girl Like Her by Ann Fessler. She’s been on Good Morning America and CNN discussing the impact of the internet on adoption. She was featured in Dan Rather’s investigative report; Adoption or Abduction. Leslie previously served on the board of CUB & the Evan B. Donaldson Institute. She currently assists the participants of LONG-LOST FAMILY through the tumultuous emotions of reunion. 

Leslie Pate Mackinnon

Lorraine Dusky is an award-winning journalist, editor and author who prefers to write stories that will make a difference. Her controversial memoir, Birthmark, published in 1979, was the first from a mother to write about the grief of giving up a child to adoption. She began her career as a newspaper reporter when she was 14, writing for her hometown newspaper. Her goal was always to break out of old-fashioned "women's news," yet her life and writing has been greatly shaped by the daughter she gave up for adoption, culminating in her recent book, Hole in my Heart.    

Lorraine Dusky

Rhonda Churchill, LPC is an author, Licensed Professional Counselor, Adoptee Advocacy, co-owner and Clinical Director at Therapeutic Life Choices. Rhonda is an established cornerstone in the Tulsa mental health and substance abuse services community. Her contributions to children’s mental health began over 20 years ago at the historic Children’s Medical Center here in Tulsa. Rhonda was born and adopted in Oklahoma, a state with closed adoption records. And, although she was cherished by her adoptive family, she—like so many adoptees—felt a burning desire to find and make contact with her birth parents. Her three-decade search involved institutional stonewalling; the intervention of numerous judges, attorneys, and detectives; hundreds of court filings; mountains of paperwork, and thousands of dollars in expenses.

   Barbara Robertson, LMSW, is an Ohio-born, New York adoptee who received a copy of her original birth certificate after new legislation took effect in March of 2015. Since then, she has been able to discover her biological origins and establish contact with both sides of her family. 
   Barbara is a strong advocate for adoptee rights, volunteering her time providing online education and support to all members of the adoption constellation. 
   She currently serves as Co-Facilitator of Adoption Network Cleveland's monthly Virtual Webcam, General Discussion Meeting, available to participants who live outside of the state of Ohio. Barbara has also written a piece for the Dear Adoption blog and is a contributing author to the book, Black Anthology: Adult Adoptees Claim Their Space. 

   Amber Jimerson is a psychology student and facilitator of NAAP’s First Families: Birthparents Journeying Together, a monthly virtual support group for first family members, which also hosts guest speakers throughout the year. She is a birthmother in a semi-open adoption, and also grew up with family disruption herself. Her experiences have left her passionate for family preservation which lead to previous volunteer work with Parent Life, a mentoring program for teen moms. Currently, she and her husband of thirteen years are raising their four children together in central Indiana. Amber is a preacher’s wife and has spoken on the theology of adoption with Brooke Randolph in their webinar Healing Religious Wounds: The Theology of Adoption in Christianity, as well as on The Balancing The Christian Life podcast. Additionally, she is a painter and an author of two books, haiku therapy, and every soul a bird.

Rhonda Churchill

Barbara Robertson, LMSW is an Ohio-born, New York Adoptee. Barbara is a strong advocate for adoptee rights, volunteering her time providing online education and support to all members of the adoption triad. She currently serves as Co-Facilitator of Adoption Network Cleveland's monthly Virtual Webcam General Discussion Meeting, available to participants who live outside of the state of Ohio. 

Barbara Robertson

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senior advisory council

senior advisory council

BOARD of directors

Barbara robertson

amber Jimerson