About: Staff

David Brodzinsky, Ph.D Research and Project Director Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute 129 Calvert Court Oakland, CA 94611

Voice: (510) 601-1410 Email: dbrodzinsky@adoptioninstitute.org

David Brodzinsky, Ph.D. is one of the most highly regarded researchers, educators and authors in the field of adoption and foster care. He is Professor Emeritus of Developmental and Clinical Psychology and immediate past Director of the Foster Care Counseling Project at Rutgers University.

Dr. Brodzinsky was a founding member of the Institute's Board of Directors, on which he served for 10 years and a Senior Fellow. In the fall 2006, he opened the West Coast office of the Adoption Institute and joined its staff as Research and Project Director.

For the past three decades, Dr. Brodzinsky's highly regarded research and scholarly writing have focused primarily on issues related to the adjustment of adopted and foster children and their families. He is especially well known for his research on developmental and family issues related to adopted children's adjustment.

Dr. Brodzinsky maintains an active private practice in psychology, much of which focuses on the clinical needs of adoption triad members. He also has an active practice in forensic psychology, focusing primarily on family law issues including child custody, termination of parental rights, contested adoptions, and child abuse and neglect. He has testified in a number of nationally prominent cases, including the Baby M contested adoption case in New Jersey, the Baby Jessica contested adoption case in Michigan, the Woody Allen and Mia Farrow contested adoption and custody case in New York, and the gay marriage trial in Hawaii.

Dr. Brodzinsky has been a consultant to numerous public and private adoption agencies and has conducted workshops and seminars on adoption and foster care for mental health professionals, adoption professionals, and the lay public throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He also has published widely on the psychology of adoption in professional journals and is the co-author or co-editor of five books on adoption, including The Psychology of Adoption (1990); Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self (1992); Children's Adjustment to Adoption: Developmental and Clinical Issues (1998); Adoption and Prenatal Drug Exposure: Research, Policy, and Practice (2000), and Psychological Issues in Adoption: Research and Practice (2005).