Once Upon A Time...In Adopteeland

Mar Osma de Forest(they/them/elle) is a transracially adopted person from Colombia currently in reunion with their mother and brothers in Bogota, and one brother living in Pennsylvania. They are the project manager and researcher at Adoption Mosaic. Before working for the organization they were a professional actor and then went to work in public libraries for 15 years doing interlibrary loans, programming, book groups, reference services and cataloging. They also volunteered in various capacities for the original Adoption Mosaic nonprofit; serving on the Board, the Adoption Constellation magazine team, and co-facilitating Youth Activity Groups. Recently they have been on Adoption Mosaic's We the Experts: Adoptee Speaker Series as a panelist. Their work emphasizes centering marginalized communities, solidarity with children, and equitable access to information and resources for all.

Music by Corey Quinn

A Patreon Preview of a conversation with Alexis Del Campo Eyler. Listen to the full recording by joining our community within the community.

Alexis is Executive Director of the Birthparent Support Alliance (formerly On Your Feet Foundation), where she has spent the past decade transforming post-placement support for birthparents. Under her leadership, the organization has grown from serving clients in 2 states to providing comprehensive services to nearly 800 birthparents across 46 states and 2 countries.

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Patricia Knight Meyer was sold on the black market as an infant in 1970 and spent 47 years without a legally obtained identity. She is a journalist and an adoption reform advocate, and her memoir is Wonderland: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption.

Today she is a full time adoption reform advocate. She serves on the board of the National Association of Adoptees and Parents and hosts the NAAP Happy Hour on Zoom on the third Friday of every month. She speaks at adoption conferences and camps, addressing adoptees and adoptive parents. She writes at www.myadoptedlife.com and leads memoir writing workshops. She is a champion of more transparency and oversight in the adoption process.

wonderlandthememoir.com

bit.ly/TXADOPTEERIGHTS

Music by Corey Quinn

Ted Leonhardt is an author, illustrator, and creative advisor based in Bellingham, Washington. He was adopted at five months, fostered before that, and spent fifty years in creative leadership before understanding where his capacity came from. His book, The Work Beneath the Work, is a memoir and field guide illustrated with sixty-two of his own pen-and-ink drawings.

https://tedleonhardt.com

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Mark Steiner is the co-founder and CEO of GigSalad, the leading online marketplace connecting event planners with entertainers, speakers, and event professionals. After starting his career in acting and talent representation, Mark discovered a passion for helping talented people find opportunities to do what they love. Adopted at birth and diagnosed with ADHD later in life, he brings a unique perspective to conversations about leadership, creativity, vulnerability, and building businesses that put people first.

https://www.gigsalad.com https://thinkupon.com https://podcasts.apple.com › podcast › the-big-ideas-po...

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Devon Shendleman is a transracial international adoptee born in India and raised in the U.S. He is a life and executive coach, Keynote speaker, author, CEO and Founder of Fortitude Associates, a premier global coaching firm. He is a veteran adoptee advocate in the community. He served 3 terms on the board of directors and nearly 10 years involved with Heritage Camps For Adoptive Families. Devon joined the board around 2007 and helped expand the mission from 10 camps to 11 camps and a retreat, as they recognized the lack of cultural access for adoptees growing up. Devon has more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, consultant and mentor.

https://devonshendleman.com

https://fortitudeassociates.com

Music by Corey Quinn

Tracey A. Marshall is a same race Black domestic adoptee originating from Chicago, Illinois who currently resides in a Chicagoland suburb.

She is a woman of faith along side her husband, two daughters and grandchildren.

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Noel Holton Brathwaite is an adoptee who lives in New York and is a tenured Associate Professor of English. Her husband is a scientist who works in the field of Computational Biology. They have a bright and talented son, who is a senior in college majoring in Physics.

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Aimee Seiff Christian writes memoir and creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Hippocampus, Pidgeonholes, Atticus Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. She is a contributing writer to Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity and the Meaning of Kinship. She is a writing instructor and developmental editor and teaches memoir and creative nonfiction at GrubStreet and privately. She is currently working on a memoir about adoption, identity, and the long afterlife of separation. She lives in Massachusetts. More at aimeechristian.net.

Music by Corey Quinn

Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, Ed.D., LCSW, LMFT is a returning guest.

She 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 models for training, using her systemic, intergenerational, and developmental framework, The Normative Crises in the Development of the Adoptive Family. 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).

Music by Corey Quinn