2024 NYS foster care and adoption conference AFFCNY banner

The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York returns with the 35th Annual New York State Foster Care and Adoption Conference!

 Thursday May 9th and Friday May 10th at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY!

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Our 2024 Conference Workshop Presenters

Come get to know the amazing collection of people who will sharing their expertise and knowledge with us during the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition’s 2024 Foster Care and Adoption Conference.

Check out their brief bios below and follow the links to learn more about any of our incredible presenters!

Evelyn Ankoma is a Post Permanency Support Social Worker at MercyFirst. She has over 10 years of experience in child welfare, specifically foster care and adoption. Over the years, Evelyn has worked with families to reach permanency. In her current role, she supports adoptive/KinGAP families with needed resources to navigate the system post-adoption. Her goal is to keep families intact and avoid disruptions or re-entry into foster care.

Presenting: Post-Permanency Support Services Discussion

Alexis Arnett is a current fellow in the Empire State Fellows program—that prepares the next generation of New York State policy makers. She is placed in the Office of Children and Family Services. She holds a Master of Social Work from Fordham University and is a licensed social worker with extensive professional and volunteer experiences in the child welfare system. She is a passionate advocate for children in families. Alexis has previously worked as homefinder—training and licensing foster parents in NYC as well as a supervisor for Court Appointed Special Advocates, at the Bronx Family Courthouse. She took part in spearheading several important initiatives including Pregnant and Parenting Youth And the Youth Leadership Council. During her professional journey, she has helped numerous clients navigate complex systems in many arenas including: housing courts, homeless shelters, public assistance offices, and criminal justice proceedings. Her most recent experience, before the Empire State Fellows, was as a Women and Public Policy Fellow at the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society through Rockefeller College. As part of this fellowship, Alexis was placed at OCFS in the Bureau of Policy Analysis. Alexis is thrilled to be able to continue her work at OCFS and hopes to use her expertise from the frontlines of child welfare services as an asset in informing the development and implementation of responsive public policy.

Presenting:  Reimagining New York State Kinship Foster Home Approval Standards

Shanene Bryant is a proud mother who was, personally, impacted by the child welfare system. She has dedicated her career to helping other families and has been advocating for the past 18 years. Shanene worked at foster care agencies and supported families to understand their rights and how to navigate and safely reunify with their children. She is currently Rise’s Parent Advocate Director where her role is to train other Parent Advocates coming into this work and support their growth. 

Presenting: Building a Bridge: Stories About Connections Between Parents and Foster Parents

Samantha Callaghan, LMSW, the Director of Adoption and Kinship Support at New Alternatives for Children (NAC), is responsible for providing direct oversight to the following post-adoption and post-guardianship programs: PLAN, Family Permanency Center, and Post Permanency Support Services. In this role, Mrs. Callaghan supervises a team of social workers that provide education and support to adoptive parents and kinship caregivers to prevent any disruptions and dissolutions. Prior to joining NAC in December 2013, Mrs. Callaghan worked as a Family Service Specialist at the Division of Youth and Family Services in Paterson, NJ and a social worker at Keansburg High School. She has an MSW in Social Work from Fordham University, and a B.A in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University. In addition, Mrs. Callaghan serves as a NAC Mentoring Site Coordinator, a Mentor to Staff of Color, and a DEIB member.  She is a strong advocate for kinship and adoptive families impacted by the child welfare system.

Presenting virtually: Post-Permanency Support Services Discussion

Emily Collins is a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years’ experience working with youth who have histories of childhood maltreatment and/or early attachment disruptions. In 2010, Emily welcomed into her family a 16-year-old boy who had been living in a group home. This experience taught her that, no matter how much intellectual knowledge she had, parenting was an emotional undertaking and the need for emotional support was paramount. Since 2017, Emily has been providing that support to other families as the Director of Post Placement Support at You Gotta Believe, an agency that trains and supports parents to adopt older youth out of foster care.

Presenting virtually: 10 Healing Yourself to Heal Your Child 

Kim Diaz is a NYS Certified Public School Teacher; NYS Certified Public School Administrator; Early Childhood program developer and designer; Founder of EDUCATIONAL SOLUTIONS ™, a consulting service designed to create solutions that support opportunity and progress toward the overall betterment of children, family, schools, and communities with a concentration in special education and giftedness. Kim has presented with FFTA and COFFCA. My business partner and I have and are presently available to present to Local Departments of Social Services, on a variety of topics included but not limited to,PARENTING, TRAUMA/VICARIOUS TRAUMA, SPECIAL EDUCATION-CSE/IEP process, TEACHING THE CHILD INCARE, AN ANTI-BULLYING CAMPAIGN FOR ADULTS AND STUDENTS ALIKE, and more.Kim is a published author of a foster adoption picture book titled The Perfect Match and another book titled Raising Robots- A Social Worker’s Journal. Additionally, she has been published by Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

Presenting: Foster Care, Adoption & The Educational System: Bridging the Gap  

Rachel Doyle is the co-founder of Fostering Hope Together a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating and preserving family values by delivering love, hope and resources to families in foster care (birth, relatives & foster) in their time of need.  Rachel’s most cherished role, as well as being a wife for over 23 years, is being a Mom to her 18 children (including 6 who have returned home) and advocate for foster and adopted children.   Her heart, passion and empathy have forged the way to bring hope, love and resources to hundreds of children and families involved in foster care. 

Presenting: Foster Blessings and Fostering Hope; Foster Care, Adoption and Supporting All of the Players  

Sara Easterly is an author of books and essays, including her award-winning memoir, Searching for Mom, and Adoption Unfiltered, a collaboration with birth parent Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard and adoptive parent Lori Holden, releasing in November 2023. Sara’s adoption-focused articles and essays have been published by Psychology Today, Dear Adoption,Feminine Collective, Her View from Home, Red Letter Christians, and Severance Magazine, to name a few. Sara is the founder of Adoptee Voices and resides outside of Seattle with her husband, two daughters, and a menagerie of rescued fur-babies.

Presenting virtually: Courageous Conversations to Lead the Way Toward True Openness  

Rebecca Fiore was born in Curuguaty, Paraguay and grew up in northern New Jersey as a transracial adoptee. She is a therapist who works with adults in the LGBTQIA+ community. She also co-facilitates a group of adult adoptees mentoring children adoptees on a monthly basis. In her spare time she likes to watch comedies, eat empanadas, and build Lego flowers.  

Presenting virtually: Las Estrellas (The Stars): The Building of an Adoptee Community and Our Lived Experiences

Sandra Flach is mom of 8 children, 5 through adoption—2 diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She encourages and equips foster and adoptive parents through her weekly Adoption & Foster Care Journey Podcast and blogs at SandraFlach.com. She is a certified facilitator of the FASCETS Neurobehavioral Model, teaches FASD workshops, and co-leads the Hope for the FASD Journey online support community. Sandra is co-founder of Justice For Orphans and author of Orphans No More—A Journey Back to the Father. She and her husband Wayne have been married 36 years. They Reside in upstate NY where they love to spend time with family.

Presenting: FASD: The Silent Epidemic

Samantha Fuhrman Samantha is the Program Director for the AGAPE program in Nassau/Suffolk/Rockland/Putnam counties. Before joining the Coalition, she worked as a Program Director for an international adoption agency, providing pre-adoption education, home study services, and post-adoption counseling.

Samantha is a NY Licensed Master Social Worker and an adoption-competent therapist. She has over 10 years of experience working with adoptive families providing advocacy and education, case management, home studies, post adoption support, and ongoing therapy. She is passionate about helping families navigate the blessing, the loss, and the trauma of adoption. Samantha’s work at the Coalition is more than a job, because her passion is to help individuals heal from their histories of trauma and help families grow in their connection with one another.

Samantha received her Master’s in Social Work degree from Bryn Mawr College and is a New York Licensed Master Social Worker. Samantha has completed the Training for Adoption Competency through the Center for Adoption Support and Education (CASE), and is a Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Practitioner. In addition to her role at the Coalition, Samantha is a therapist in a private practice, and her favorite population to work with are adoptive families!

Samantha lives on Long Island with her husband, and has 4 children by birth and adoption. She has experienced the challenge of parenting a child who has endured profound loss, and the impact on the whole family system. She has also experienced the healing and connection that can happen when parents practice therapeutic parenting. Samantha loves continuing education, reading, the mountains, and being outside with her family.

Presenting virtually: Use of Self: The Impact on Your Families and Yourself

Amy Geller is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and family therapist in Bergen County, New Jersey. Amy has a general practice where she has provided psychotherapy to individuals, couples, and families since 2011. Amy has extensive experience providing social work services in in-patient and community health settings, of which, hospice care was a particular passion. Amy’s area of clinical interest and expertise has evolved towards working with all members of the adoptive kinship network (adoptees, adoptive families and birth parents). Initially interested in working with adolescents, it became evident to Amy that a high degree of her adolescent clients were adoptees and that, despite their diverse backgrounds, there were similarities in their experiences and behaviors. An adoptee herself, Amy became particularly curious about understanding and meeting the needs of adoptees and their families as well as educating the mental health and school communities on the unique needs of this population.

Amy is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Social Work at The Rutgers University School of Social Work where the focus of her scholarship and research is on adoption. As part of her studies, Amy presented a case study outlining strength-based interventions for building attachment between adolescent adoptees and their adoptive mothers. Amy is currently engaged in a qualitative study that examines “The Experience of Adult Adoptees in Psychotherapy”.

In addition to her private practice, Amy guest lectures at Rutgers and has appeared on several podcasts to speak about adoption related topics.

Presenting: Adolescent Adoptive Relationships: Addressing Loss & Building Attachment

Colombian artist Kat Geng-Caraballo navigates her personal biography as a transnational, transracial adoptee at the intersection of multiple cultures, languages and families through sculpture and video. With equal esteem for the serious and the playful, she builds found object assemblages and sews glove puppets in order to explore issues surrounding identity, language, loss, family and connection.
 
Her video work often incorporates audio recordings of her close and intersecting communities of fellow adoptees, artists, family and friends. In 2022, her short film A Puppet Guide to Human Self-Care premiered at BRIC Arts Media (NYC), pairing footage of her puppets with the voices and insights of fellow adoptees and friends offering a warm collective narration and a visual meditation on self-care. Geng’s art practice has been supported by grants, fellowships and residencies including The Bronx Museum AIM, BRIC Arts Media, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Vermont Studio Center and New York Foundation for the Arts.

She is currently sewing a series of tapestries for her latest project, the Geng & Caraballo Puppet Lab, in her studio in Brooklyn, NY.

Presenting virtually: Las Estrellas (The Stars): The Building of an Adoptee Community and Our Lived Experiences

Sarah Gerstenzang works, in private practice, as a therapist with foster and adoptive families  in Manhattan.  She was formerly the Executive Director of the Coalition, the Associate Director of AdoptUsKids, and a Senior Policy Analyst at Children’s Rights. She holds a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University. Her child welfare policy and practice experience includes research and publication on a range of foster care and adoption issues as well as presentations at national and international conferences. Sarah’s most recent book is Another Mother: Co-Parenting with the Foster Care System.

Sarah has been a foster and kinship parent. One of her three children was adopted from the New York City foster care system. She and her husband support three additional siblings who were also in the foster care system and are now grown.  

Presenting: You Can Do It Too  

Heather Girard is the Assistant Director of the Bureau of Policy at the Office of Children and Family Services. She has been working for OCFS in the Bureau of Policy since 2014. Prior to working at OCFS she worked for Albany County Department of Children, Youth and Families. There, she held several positions including in Child Protective Services, Family Team Meeting Facilitator, Home Finder and working with families with longer CPS involvement.

Presenting: Reimagining New York State Kinship Foster Home Approval Standards 

Cassandra Gonzalez is a proud mother of an amazing 2 year old boy. She is a parent impacted by the child welfare system. She  came to Rise in 2022 and joined the Rise and Shine Parent Leadership program. She then started as a Parent Contributor bringing her perspectives to different conversations.Currently, Cassandra is Rise’s Program Support Manager. Her role is to continue to elevate other parents’ voices at these tables and bring parents’ perspectives to change conditions that harm the well-being of families.                         

Presenting: Building a Bridge: Stories About Connections Between Parents and Foster Parents

Dr. Abigail Hasberry is a licensed marriage and family therapist associate and holds a B.S. in African American studies and sociology, a M.A. in teaching, K-12, a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction, a school superintendent certification, and a M.Ed. in counseling and development, marriage and family counseling. Abby is a former teacher and principal with experience in private, traditional public, and charter schools. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the experiences of black teachers at private, affluent, and predominantly white private schools. Her research focused on identity development, diversity, and the development of support networks. She has published on identity development and has been on several podcasts and webinars speaking on adoption, identity development, and supporting teens with anxiety.

Abby is a domestic transracial adoptee, in reunion, who was adopted as an infant and as the youngest child in a family with three biological children making her not only the only adoptee, but also the only African American in her family. Using her personal experience, expertise in racial identity development and background in education, Abby primary therapy specialties are adoption with focus on transracial adoptees, birth moms, adolescents and young adults, racial identity development and racial trauma, and relationships. She has been trained in Brainspotting and narrative therapy and believes that the client is the expert in his/her own life. Abby considers herself diversity focused, trauma-based, and informed in somatic approaches to psychotherapy.Dr. Hasberry is married and has four children. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and has lived all over the U.S. and in Egypt and Japan. She is publishing her memoir in 2023, Adopting Privilege.

Presenting virtually: Becoming Black: Identity Development & Transracial Adoption

Renee Hettich  is the Lead AGAPE Director out of the Central New York, Southern Finger, and Finger Lakes region of New York State. Renee has been parenting children from adverse histories for over twenty-five years as a foster, adoptive, and kinship parent. She is currently parenting four children who joined her family through inter-country adoption. She cares for children with special medical, learning, developmental, and mental health needs. Renee has worked in the field of adoption and foster care since 2004 as an adoption social worker and program director supporting families adopting domestically and internationally.

She has published articles in Adoption Today and Adoptive Families. She is the author of the book My Kids Know More Than Me! 15 Life Lessons from Foster and Adopted Children. Renee is also a trainer on the topics of adverse childhood experiences, the adaptation of the brain from toxic stress and trauma, resiliency, and therapeutic parenting. She has also been featured on radio and podcast broadcasts in regard to parenting children with traumatic histories and with mental health challenges. Renee earned a Master of Social Work degree from Marywood University and has been a Licensed Master Social Worker since 2005. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Audiology from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor’s Degree in Speech/Language Pathology from Ithaca College.

Presenting virtually: Use of Self: The Impact on Your Families and Yourself

Chantal Hinds has been an attorney for over 10 years and spent 7 years working in and adjacent to the child welfare system. She started her career working as an attorney at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services. Most recently, she was an education attorney who specialized in supporting the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs of students in the foster system in New York City. Chantal worked directly with children and youth in the foster system, parents, foster parents, and adoptive parents. She helped parents, foster parents, and adoptive parents to become advocates for their children’s educational needs. She also supported foster care agency staff in New York City ensuring that staff were equipped to advocate for the young people on their caseloads. Additionally, Chantal has spent nearly the last year and a half working on policy research and proposals to improve educational outcomes for youth in the foster system in New York State. Chantal has regularly responded to media inquiries regarding education and youth in the foster system. She has also published reports, commentaries, op-eds, and submitted public comments regarding the education needs of youth in the foster system.

Chantal is a policy entrepreneur at Next100 and an advocate for students in foster care, working to ensure they have the educational support they need to succeed. At Next100, Chantal’s work focuses on improving academic outcomes and narrowing the opportunity gap between students in foster care and their peers. Chantal works to explore how schools and school districts can be sources of support, encouragement, and care for this unique and vulnerable population, while drawing on her experience as an education attorney working directly with students and families impacted by foster care.

Chantal previously worked at Advocates for Children of New York as a senior staff attorney and education collaborative coordinator. She coordinated a peer-driven collaborative with twenty-three New York City foster care agencies, ensuring the education staff at those agencies had the information and skills needed to advocate for the educational needs of the students they served. She also provided direct representation to students and families, helping parents assert their rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Prior to Advocates for Children, Chantal led a faith-based nonprofit and worked at the Administration for Children’s Services. Chantal graduated from Adelphi University and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She holds a master’s of biblical and theological studies from Dallas Theological Seminary.

Presenting virtually: Improving Education for Young People in Foster Care in New York State: Listening to Those with Lived Experience

Lori Holden, a veteran parent of two young adults, writes at LavenderLuz.com and hosts the podcast Adoption: The LongView. She’s the author of the acclaimed book The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole (recommended by People magazine in 2021), written with her daughter’s birth mom and featured on adoption-agency required-reading lists across the country. She has keynoted and presented at adoption conferences around the US and Canada and her work has appeared in magazines such as Parenting and Adoptive Families. In 2018, she was honored as an Angel in Adoption® by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), nominated by SenatorMichael Bennet of Colorado.

Presenting virtually: Courageous Conversations to Lead the Way Toward True Openness

For over 13 years, Melissa Holiday has been a leader in child welfare in New York State. Melissa is currently the Program Director for Post Permanency Programs at the New York Council on Adoptable Children (COAC). Melissa is committed to ensuring her team provides the highest standard of post-adoption, post-guardianship, post-custody case management, support and advocacy to families throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Melissa is currently the Co-Chair of the New York City Kinship Task Force. Melissa enjoys binge watching on Netflix, the lights of Las Vegas, and spending time with her wife and cats.

Presenting virtually: Post-Permanency Support Services Discussion

Chester Jackson is a NYC born informal, late discovery adopted person. He is the AFFCNY’s HelpLine Coordinator. He has twenty five years of experience in older child adoption, parent recruitment, training and support. Chester’s professional life got even more personal than it already was when he learned the truth of his origins. Chester and Karin Jackson are parents of five children. The Jackson family consists of two biological children, two children adopted from foster care as teenagers and one son through legal guardianship.

Presenting: You Can Do It Too  &The Adoptee Experience: please Don’t Touchy My Private Parts

Trudy Kent serves as the Director of AGAPE Hudson Valley at the Coalition. She has experience working and advocating for children and families in foster care. In her current role Trudy collaborates with families who have adopted children and who have guardianship. She connects them with an array of support systems and provides case management services. She is passionate about how the foster care system treats children and families and continues to advocate for their safety and well-being. Trudy has Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Master’s Degree of Social Worker from Hunter College. Trudy resides in Rockland County with her husband and family.  

Presenting virtually: Use of Self: The Impact on Your Families and Yourself

Carolina Khan, MA, Counseling Psychology, based in Queens NY, is a transracial adoptee from Palmira, Colombia. Through her work at Montefiore, Department of Substance Abuse, she works at a satellite office at the Administration for Children’s Services. Her work is greatly focused on maintaining parent/child connection and reunification; promoting the importance of family preservation. Carolina is able to provide a perspective that allows for support and encouragement to families that are facing a time of crisis. This work is a result of her own journey within the Colombian narrative and her own loss of her natural family in Colombia. In her free time, she enjoys travel, reading, writing and spending time with friends.

Presenting virtually: Las Estrellas (The Stars): The Building of an Adoptee Community and Our Lived Experiences

Shantell Lewis has worked in social services, primarily in the area of seeking permanency for foster children, for over 22 years. She holds both a BSW and an MSW from York College. Since 2000, she has worked at MercyFirst. Her positions have included: Adoption Caseworker, where she gained first hand experience with the value of permanency, Adoption Expeditor, ensuring that children and families achieved permanency through adoption, Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Recruiter, helping hard-to-place youth connect to permanency resources and is, currently, the Program Coordinator for MercyFirst Post Permanency Support Program Providing support to adoptive and kingap families.

All of these experiences have led to the revelation that; while there are solid investments made in ensuring that children are safely discharged from foster care, little resources are available for aftercare. The idea of permanency is to provide a child or youth with a forever family and it’s disheartening when an adoption or KinGap is broken. Shantell hopes to help bridge the gap and empower adoptive and KinGap families, so they can better care for and ascertain services to keep their families intact. It’s her belief that every child/youth deserves a stable home in the event they are unable to return to their family of origin. Witnessing how youth and children can thrive once they achieve permanency with all necessary supports gives Shantell joy.

Presenting virtually: Navigating the System After Adoption, Kinship Guardianship and Foster Care

Jessica M. Luciere, is a transracial adoptee born in Bogota, Colombia who grew up in Long Island, New York. She is an Adoptee Advocate, working to create supportive spaces for adoptees and their families around the world, and currently the Manager of Community Engagements at Spence-Chapin. Jessica was one of the founding mentors in 2005, of Spence-Chapin’s NYC Teen Mentorship program which connects tween and teen adoptees with adult adoptee mentors  in a monthly group mentoring program. She is the former President of All Together Now, based in Brooklyn NY, and has worked with AFFCNY. Jessica’s passion for connecting with adoptees and their families has always been the driving force in her work and is the reason she continues to create spaces for adoptee stories and voices to be heard by all.

Presenting: The Adoptee Experience: please Don’t Touchy My Private Parts

Michael McCay was a full-time kinship caregiver to his grandchild who was, eventually, adopted by the McCays. In 2006, Michael  graduated from the University of NH with an MS in Marriage and Family Therapy. His professional experience includes having worked at Seacoast Mental Health Center In Portsmouth, NH as an Outreach Therapist and at Great Bay MentalHealth in Dover/Somersworth, NH as a Family Therapist.  Since 2011, Michael has been in private practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist who works with those in the adoption constellation. Michael  has been an adjunct faculty member in the Family Studies Department at UNH for the MFT graduate program. He has presented workshops about attachment and how it impacts children in foster care and adopted families and workshops for grandparents raising their grandchildren at Great Bay Mental Health in Somersworth, NH.

Presenting virtually: Raising the Grandchildren: What I Thought I Knew as a Therapist Until it Happened to Me

Hollee A. McGinnis, MSW, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. In addition to being adopted from South Korea, she has more than 25 years of community organizing, practice, policy, and research experience relating to the life course of orphaned and separated children in alternative care (adoption, foster,institutions). Her research broadly examines social and cultural determinants of mental health and well-being, with a focus on improving outcomes for youth and adults with histories of childhood adversity and involvement in systems of child welfare. Specifically, her research centers the lived experiences of individuals who are adopted or experienced institutional care, and their adoptive and racial/ethnic identity development; stressors specific to the experience of attachment trauma,racism, cultural loss, systemic oppression; and adoptee-led mutual aid. Prior to her doctorate at Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. McGinnis was Policy Director at the Donaldson Adoption Institute. She received her Master of Science from Columbia University School of Social Work, and a post-Master’s Clinical Fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center. In1996 she founded Also-Known-As, Inc., a non-profit adult intercountry adoptee organization. She has been recognized by the U.S. Government with a Congressional Angel in Adoption award for her work on adoption and her expertise has been recognized by the news media with interviews conducted for pieces in the New York Times Magazine, BBC News and NPR.

Presenting: Health, Well-Being & Adoptee Connections in Adulthood: Mapping the lifecourse of Adoption Project (MAP)

Annette O’Connell is a Bronx born, domestic infant adopted person. She has been a colleague and friend of the Coalition for nine years. Specifically, in 2014, Annette and AFFCNY’s Claudia Corrigan-D’Arcy joined forces to lobby the NYS Legislature in order to educate the legislators about adoption and adoptee rights. Annette, officially, joined the Coalition team in the fall of 2020 and is part of the Communications Team as Coordinator of Outreach and Advocacy.

Adoptee Rights is her passion. She is a founding member and spokesperson for the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition, NYARC, (of which the AFFCNY is a core partner) and is a board member of the two largest, national adoptee advocacy organizations: Bastard Nation and Adoptees United, Inc.. She is uncompromising in her belief that every adult who was adopted as a child deserves the unrestricted right to request and obtain an unredacted copy of their Original Birth Certificate when they reach the age of majority in their state. She has been interviewed for many news stories related to the passage of New York State’s 2019 legislation, enacted on January 15, 2020 which  decimated over 8 decades of secrecy and restored equality in vital records law for adopted adults and their lineal descendants. Annette  volunteers her time as an Adoption Search Angel, using DNA results and non-identifying information to help adults who were adopted to find their biological parents/birth families.

Presenting: The Adoptee Experience: please Don’t Touchy My Private Parts

Megan O’Leary graduated from Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University in 2015 as a Pro Bono Scholar. Her career has, primarily, been focused on child welfare litigation. She has experience advocating for each of the stakeholders within the system: the local child welfare agency; bio parents; foster parents; and the children. In 2018, Megan certified as a foster/adoptive parent. In the past four years, she has cared for children ages 2 months to 12 years with varying needs. She joined Monroe County’s Foster Care Advisory Board and looked for other opportunities to help improve the system by sharing her experience and knowledge with other foster parents trying to navigate the complex child welfare system. Additionally, Megan is an Advisory Council member of the AFFCNY.

Presenting: Common Legalities: Fostering Understanding of Legal Rights in Child Welfare

Angela Paganelli is the founder of Foster Blessings, and the author of the book, “Foster Blessings.” She is a former foster mother to over 20 children and has adopted 4, adding to her own 3 biological children. Angela also spent her entire teen years in care including placement into kinship care at age 13 and therapeutic foster care at age 14. She can also address the trauma an and lived experience of of the troubled teen industry and her forced institutionalization to psych wards. She has been a Family Support Specialist with the Hudson Valley AGAPE team since March of 2022.  

Presenting: Foster Blessings and Fostering Hope; Foster Care, Adoption and Supporting All of the Players

Alexandra (“Allie”) Pisano-Stratton is a current second year MSW graduate student at Springfield College, Springfield, MA. Driven by her own personal history in adoption and a wish to connect with others of similar backgrounds; Allie has taken an interest in attachment and trauma work throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies. Allie has had the great opportunity to expand her knowledge and skill set at her current internship with Adoption Journeys. Allie is looking forward to her graduation this coming May and will continue her studies in hopes of passing her LCSW exam in the Summer. Allie aspires to continue her love for learning and the adoption population in her future endeavors.

Presenting: Raising Voices:  Themes from a Group of Emerging Adult Adoptees

Nia Potter prides herself as an advocate for childrens’ rights and is excited to share her story of moral adoption to other youth to instill hope that they can have family too. Nia grew up in the New York State Foster Care System from the age of 4 until she aged out at 21. She has lived experience in Residential Treatment Centers, Group Homes, Foster Homes, Reunification Efforts and Kinship Placements.  

Presenting virtually: 10 Healing Yourself to Heal Your Child

Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard is the Director of Advocacy and Policy at AdoptMatch, where she works on public policy issues impacting all adoption-triad members. She’s a birth mother who is passionate about raising the standards of adoption to better serve the children, mothers, and families affected by family separation. Adoption has been a monumental part of her entire life: Kelsey is the daughter and granddaughter of adoptees. She has worked at various agencies and law firms in the adoption field and can often be found fervently and frequently demanding, “How do we fix this?” She is also a co-host of the first-ever birth-mom podcast, Twisted Sisterhood. Kelsey resides in Northern California With her husband and daughter.

Presenting virtually: Courageous Conversations to Lead the Way Toward True Openness

Samantha Reed is an occupational therapy doctoral student at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. She has been working with the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York for her doctoral capstone project. Her capstone project provides sensory-based play sessions to families within Central New York to support children’s sensory needs and build caregiver-child connections. She completed a fieldwork rotation at a pediatric outpatient clinic that specializes in sensory integration. She also participated in a clinical mental health rotation at a youth residential facility as part of her occupational therapy program. Prior to graduate school, she has supported children with disabilities in a variety of settings, including working at a social skills summer camp for children with disabilities for 8 years, and teaching a dance and free movement class for kids with disabilities for 2 years. She is passionate about working with children and has been enjoying and learning a lot while providing sensory support to adopted children during her capstone project.  

Presenting virtually:  Why Don’t Typical Behavior Strategies Work for My Child: Is it Sensory or is it Behavior?

Kassandra Rivera is a proud Long Island University graduate who has been working in child welfare for the last 2 years.  Currently, Kassandra is the Youth Skills Specialist for the New York Council on Adoptable Children working with youth and families on their academic and personal goals. She is committed to providing supportive and empathetic services to her clients. Kassandra enjoys live theatre, reading, and her dog, Harley.         

Presenting virtually: Post-Permanency Support Services Discussion

Nyamekye Reynolds spent time in the New York City foster system as a child. She is passionate about speaking up for current foster youth, and the importance of connecting them with permanent family. Nyamekye has presented at NACAC, and was recently selected as a NY delegate for the National Foster Youth Institute Congressional Leadership Academy.

Presenting virtually: Healing Yourself to Heal Your Child 

Naomi Schultz is a Policy Analyst at the Bureau of Policy at the Office of Children and Family Services. She has been working for OCFS in the Bureau of Policy since 2017. Prior to working at OCFS, she worked for the NYS Assembly as a policy analyst for the Committee on Children and Families; a position she held for 10 years.

Presenting: Reimagining New York State Kinship Foster Home Approval Standards

Kim Alysha Seligmiller was introduced to You Gotta Believe in 2015 at the age of 16 and was connected with a YGB Family in December 2021. Kimmy has participated in numerous YGB MAPP Classes sharing foster youth voice, facilitated workshops for social workers and parents for NACAC and is a part of the Youth Advisory Board for Families Together in New York State. Kimmy was placed in the New York State Foster Care System at the age of 2 and aged out at 21 with experience in foster homes, residential treatment centers and group home settings.

Presenting virtually: Healing Yourself to Heal Your Child

Cordelia Cranshaw Skette’s educational background is inclusive of a Bachelor of Social Work from George Mason University and a Master Of Social Work from the University of Maryland’s Advance Standing Social Work Program. Cordelia is a recent graduate of Adopt Us Kids, Minority Professional Leadership Development Program and Howard University’s Roll Away The Stone Leadership Academy. As a Life-Coach, author, motivational speaker, former Miss District of Columbia USA 2019, and Licensed Graduate Social Worker; Cordelia used her lived expertise to help inform, guide, and advocate for social work best practice. Cordelia has worked in case management, education and independent living within the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency. Cordelia currently practices Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, treating those who suffer from trauma, anxiety and/or depression.

For the past ten years, Cordelia has operated a successful nonprofit organization Acts of Random Kindness (ARK). ARK provides programs and resources to children and families facing life challenges that include: incarcerated parents, homelessness and foster care. Cordelia’s greatest passion is to bring healing to children and families who have experienced trauma. “I help others find healthy perceptions of themselves and strengthen their ability to create lifelong relationships so they may ultimately thrive.”

Cordelia had the unique honor to represent the District of Columbia at the 2019 Miss USA Pageant in May of 2019, placing Top 10 out of the country’s 51 contestants. Cordelia continues to display that no matter where your past has been, your future can be anything you can dream it to be. Cordelia is a wife and a mother who prioritizes spending time with her family when she is not traveling to change the world.

Presenting Virtually: Survivor to Thriver

Ecuadorian artist and transnational/transracial adoptee, Angela Lucía Sharp, based in Brooklyn, NY, is a digital storyteller. Her art examines the different forms of mediation involved in transracial and transcultural identity formation among adoptees. Through the progression of her work, she has reactivated her voice and uses it to gain autonomy over adoption narratives of the ‘other’ traditionally told by ‘voices of authority’, not representative of the adoptee’s experiences but rather from the perspective of a colonizer’s history of agency and power. She also works as a NYC high school teaching artist with The Apollo Theater Education Dept. which she finds challenging at times but also very rewarding. In her free time she likes to be in nature, visit with her niece and nephew, and to watch scary movies.  

Presenting virtually: Las Estrellas (The Stars): The Building of an Adoptee Community and Our Lived Experiences

John Sobraske is an adopted person, stepparent of adopted children, and an adoption psychotherapist in private practice living in Rochester. He regularly provides training and consultation on foster care and adoption. His research interests related to adoption include anthropology, media and mythology and the application of natural medicine and body-mind methods of healing. John has an MA in Clinical Psychology and is licensed as a Mental Health Counselor and Marriage and Family Therapist. He is an adopted person, a step-parent of adopted children, and an Adoption Psychotherapist. He also works as a facilitator and family specialist in collaborative law, as a divorce mediator, and as a natural medicine provider. He, also, is an Advisory Council Member of the AFFCNY. He presents regularly, nationally and internationally, on adoption, psychotherapy, collaborative law and mediation, and natural medicine. For more information about John click here.

Presenting: Media, Myths and the Adoption Movement: Shaping our Stories Responsibly

Nancy Solow, LICSW, has been in the field of foster care and adoption since 1990. She has worked for Adoption Journeys, a Massachusetts post adoption support program, for the past 20 years, and is currently the Regional Manager of the Florence office. Nancy has been privileged to learn from the individuals, families and groups with whom she has worked, and likes to focus on providing enough support to allow for “Courageous Conversations”, as well as community connections! Nancy taught the Center for Adoption Support and Education’s Training in Adoption Competence to three cohorts, from 2013-2018, and has presented at numerous conferences on a variety of topics and themes related to adoption, early trauma and child and family development.

 Presenting: Raising Voices:  Themes from a Group of Emerging Adult Adoptees

José (aka Joshua) Stark was born in Medellín, Colombia and raised in New Jersey. He currently resides in Brooklyn. He is a father of a tween, an academic ESL instructor at BMCC and an adjunct professor of English at Hunter College, and a transracial adoptee. José loves practicing yoga and zen meditation, running, cycling, writing, and reading when he is not dreaming about surfing in the warmer weather.

Presenting virtually: Las Estrellas (The Stars): The Building of an Adoptee Community and Our Lived Experiences

Jake Stomieroski is a NYS Public School Certified Teacher and a NYS Public School Certified District Administrator. Jake has 40 + years as a K-12 Special Education teacher, testing administrator, program coordinator, and school administrator. For 14 years, Jake  served as Principal of the Career and Technical Education Center at QUESTAR. Additionally, Jake provides interactive presentations to Local Departments of Social Services on a variety of topics.

Presenting:  Foster Care, Adoption & The Educational System: Bridging The Gap

Dr. Yvonne Swinth is a Professor and Program Director/Co-Chair at the University of Puget Sound. She has more than 30 years’ experience working in pediatrics; primarily school-based settings and community-based with children with developmental trauma and sensory processing challenges. She works in her local community to provide training and support to foster, adoptive and bio parents regarding sensory processing, developmental trauma, social skills, play and executive functioning. Currently, Dr. Swinth has been researching the effectiveness and outcomes of dynamic seating in general education classrooms to support student participation and how to build resilience in children and families that have experienced trauma. She has collaborated on several research projects addressing effective services for developmental trauma, sensory processing and resilience. Other research interests include effective and efficient occupational therapy assessment and services in schools, assistive technology, and service delivery options for children with disabilities. Dr. Swinth has presented locally and nationally regarding issues of school-based practice, developmental trauma and sensory processing. In addition to research publications, she has authored several chapters in books on these topics as well. She is the founding editor of the Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools and Early Intervention.

Presenting virtually: Why Don’t Typical Behavior Strategies Work for My Child: Is it Sensory or is it Behavior?             

Beth Syverson is an adoptive mom of an incredible 19-year-old son Joey, who has been struggling with addiction and mental health issues for several years. She struggles with addiction as well, though not with the same substances as her son. This experience has given her empathy for her son’s struggles. She is walking beside Joey as he struggles with his recovery, while she works on her own personal growth and healing. In August 2021, Joey and Beth started Safe Home Podcast in order to help other families avoid the pain they’ve endured. Six weeks after it started, Joey relapsed, but he gave Beth his blessing to continue this important work, even suggesting an episode about relapse. Now the podcast has a new name – Unraveling Adoption – and she is continuing the work, focusing on supporting adoptive parents.

Last fall she started APtitude: A Support Group for Adoptive Parents Facing Adoption’s Challenges. She speaks on the topics of addiction,adoption, mental health, and parenting, and she presents adoptee-centered events to help educate the public and help adoptive families heal. Beth is committed to destigmatizing addiction and mental illness  and she wants to help other families touched by adoption to find their own healing path. She is a music director at a Unitarian Universalist Church and she teaches college music classes to intellectually disabled students. She lives in Southern California with her wife Jan, 3 dogs, and 4 horses.

Presenting virtually: Unraveling Addiction and Adoption

Rebecca Tillou is a New Jersey adoptee, adopted at 1 month old. Rebecca is the author of the auto-biographical book Tenacity. At the age of 33, she discovered her birth mom and family. The following year she was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome after finding out that her mother drank alcohol while pregnant. Many signs and symptoms displayed themselves throughout her childhood, but only upon being diagnosed does she say  her life made much more sense. Since then, she has been an advocate for those living with FASDs, their parents/guardians, and educators. She created a 5k to provide awareness to FASDs. She is an advocate for the right of all adult adoptees to have access to their records and believes had she known her birth mother, and about her addiction, her own struggles may have been different. Her hope is that her story will  give others hope.

Presenting: FASD: The Silent Epidemic   

Jeanette Vega-Brown is a proud Puerto Rican mother of 4 awesome boys. She was born and raised in Brooklyn and supporting NYC families has always been a priority. As a parent personally impacted by child welfare, Jeanette has dedicated her career to supporting other parents. For the past 17 years she has been advocating for family rights in NYC. Jeanette is a graduate of Child Welfare Organizing Project and the first Parent Advocate to sit in a child safety conference. She has worked as a Parent Advocate at a foster care agency for 5 years. Started with Rise in 2016 and is currently the Executive Director at RISE. Rise is an organization that supports and works with impacted parents to shift conditions that harm families and build new collective care networks of peer support. Her commitment is to continue uplifting parents’ voices and power to make changes that support families’ well-being.

Presenting: Building a Bridge: Stories About Connections Between Parents and Foster Parents

Alan Yu joined NYFC in February 2023. As Executive Director, he leads the long-range strategic planning and visioning for the organization, while overseeing administrative and programmatic functions. Before coming to NYFC, Alan worked for over 10 years at nonprofits focused on affordable housing and education, most recently as the Chief Development Officer at the Committee for Hispanic Children & Families (CHCF). He received his Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA with High Honors in Urban Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Presenting: Post-Permanency Support Services Discussion

 

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York returns with the 35th Annual New York State Foster Care and Adoption Conference!

LIVE and in person! PLUS continued virtual delivery in the AFFCNY.Network!

Thursday, May 9th and Friday, May 10th at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY!

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