About: Staff

Martha Henry, Ph.D., is the Education Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. She is also the lead author of Adoption in the United States: A reference for families, professionals and students, a comprehensive resource with a special focus on the medical and behavioral health needs of children who were adopted. Before coming to the Institute, Dr. Henry served as Director of the Office of Foster Care and Adoption (originally the Center for Adoption Research, where she was Education and Training Director) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where she led a team of multidisciplinary professionals in administering educational programs and consultation services.

Henry is a sought-after expert on adoption-related issues by the media, and has appeared on NBC's Today show, in Time magazine and on New York Public Radio, among others. She consistently stresses the critical importance of informed decision-making and creating open and constructive dialogues about adoption, foster care and families in general. Dr. Henry has over 20 years of experience working with and studying children and families, and is passionate about translating evidence-based knowledge into everyday practice and policy development to support children, youth and families.

During her tenure at the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Henry developed Adoption and Foster Care: Considerations for Medical Practice, the only comprehensive medical school course of its kind; and she delivered multiple seminars for medical professionals that highlighted the implications of knowledge about these topics for patient care and professional health-care practice. She also designed, developed, and administered the statewide Mass CANS (Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths©) Training Program, through which over 10,000 Massachusetts behavioral health providers have been educated and certified. Additionally, Dr. Henry was the principle investigator for a federally funded demonstration project to develop and deliver Strategic Training to Enhance Permanency Solutions (STEPS), a professional education program originally designed for Massachusetts child-welfare supervisors to enhance their knowledge and skills in supervising social workers managing adolescent cases in foster care, with the goal of securing permanency for youth at risk for aging out of the system.

She is the founder and president of MJ Henry & Associates, a practice-based education and consultation firm that specializes in education and consultation services for individuals and organizations working to support children, youth and families, especially those who have experienced adversity. The firm provides professional education and program evaluation in the areas of child welfare, foster care, adoption, and child and family behavioral health.

Dr. Henry received her master's and doctoral degrees in developmental psychology from Clark University in Worcester, MA. She has multiple direct personal connections to adoption that influence her thinking and sensitize her to its complexity and the innumerable experiences of the various members of the adoption constellation. She lives outside of Boston with her husband and their two young children.