Session 1

Before Adoption: Protecting the Rights of Vulnerable Families of Origin

• Do current practices, even when handled carefully, create for some expecting women/couples a sense of obligation to go forward with the adoption?
• What are the most appropriate ways to cover expectant mothers' expenses so that risks of coercion or exploitation are minimized or eliminated?
• What is the role of open adoption arrangements in planning for adoption? Should contact agreements be explored in all situations? Should they be enforceable?
• Is it ethical to search out children to place for adoption and what role, if any, should professionals play in such an endeavor?

Law Professor Annette Ruth Appell is Associate Dean for the Clinical Studies Program and a William S. Boyd Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has published over two dozen articles, essays and book chapters regarding adoption, mothers, and children's rights and advocacy. She serves on the editorial board of the Juvenile and Family Court Journal and of Adoption Quarterly, where she was the founding editor of the Legal Intersections section. Appell has extensive experience representing children and parents involved with the child welfare system, including providing legal representation in termination of parental rights cases and adoption proceedings. Prior to her current appointment, she taught at the University of South Carolina Law Center and the Northwestern University Law School's Children and Family Justice Center.

Lynn Franklin is a member of the Board of Directors of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. Her interest and expertise in adoption derive from her experience as a birthmother who was reunited, after 27 years, with the son she placed for adoption. Since her reunion, she has participated in the Spence-Chapin Birth Mothers Advisory Committee. Franklin served on the Spence-Chapin Board of Directors for 11 years until 2006, when she was elected a lifelong Honorary Director. She speaks at adoption-related meetings and conferences and is the author of May the Circle be Unbroken: An Intimate Journey into the Heart of Adoption (originally published hardcover Harmony Books, 1998, current paperback edition, iUniverse 2005). Franklin is the founder of two corporations, Lynn C. Franklin Associates, Ltd., devoted to author representation and agenting, and Franklin & Siegal Associates, Inc., dedicated to literary and film scouting for international publishers and film producers. Her clients include Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the best-selling author Edvard Radzinsky.

Teresa (Tesi) Kohlenberg is the mother of a son by birth and of a daughter by international adoption. After a decade of practice as a developmental pediatrician working with teenage mothers and families in urban poverty, Dr. Kohlenberg followed her long-standing interest in attachment and trauma, re-trained as a child psychiatrist, and helped to found a parent-infant mental health program at Boston Children's Hospital. Her growing concerns about the ethics of international adoption led her to work with a group of adoptive parents to found the Guatemala Adoptive Families Network, which promotes ethical practices in Guatemalan adoption. Dr. Kohlenberg contributed to the EMK Press volume, Adoption Parenting: Creating A Toolbox, Building Connections, and has spoken widely on issues in Guatemalan adoption and on "7 Things Parents Who Adopted Internationally Wish Their Agencies Had Told Them."

Sania A. Metzger is director of policy for Casey Family Services, the direct service agency of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Metzger serves as a member of the Casey Foundation's Policy and Communications Strategy Group, the Child Welfare Strategy Group, and the Casey-Center for the Study of Social Policy's Alliance for Racial Equity. She works to influence and track policies at the local, state and federal levels, often working with Casey's direct service divisions. Metzger continues to provide pro bono legal services and has served as a small claims court arbitrator. She worked for the New York State Legislature for 11 years as legislative counsel to Assemblyman Roger Green, then chair of the Standing Committee on Children and Families. Metzger is on the Board of Directors for Prevent Child Abuse America and the Center for Family Representation.

Session 2

Ensuring Ethical Relinquishment Practices

• What elements should be included in true options counseling?
• What should the rights of relinquishing mothers and fathers be?
• What is an appropriate time period during which relinquishing parents should be able to reverse their decisions to place their children for adoption?
• How can informed consent to adoption be assured?
• What services can be put into place to protect the rights of relinquishing parents?

Fred Greenman is the legal advisor and a former Director to the American Adoption Congress. He is also the former Treasurer and a current Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. A prominent adoption reform activist, he was the senior counsel to amici curiae in the historic case Doe v. Sundquist, which upheld the 1995 Tennessee Adoption Act. He also assisted counsel in the Oregon litigation, Does v. Oregon, that upheld the ballot initiative and statute in that state which granted adoptees access to their original birth certificates. Greenman has participated in various state and federal lobbying efforts, most recently concerning ratification and implementation of the Hague Convention on International Adoption. His interest in the subject stems from having surrendered a daughter for adoption at her birth and with whom he reunited 15 years ago. Greenman, a Harvard graduate, currently is a sole practitioner specializing in copyright related litigation, in addition to issues relating to adoption reform.

Melissa Griebel is the President of Ethica, Inc., and the mother of two boys, both adopted through domestic, transracial adoptions. She enjoys open adoptions with both sons'' birth families. Griebel has a strong interest in the ethics of domestic adoption, and a special interest in the issues that affect transracial adoptees and their families. She has served on the Foster Care Review Board for Pima County, AR, and moderates two adoption forums that address domestic adoption issues. Griebel has also worked professionally in the insurance industry for much of the past 20 years. She lives in Tucson, AR, with her partner and children.

Jini L. Roby, an attorney and social worker, is an associate professor of social work at Brigham Young University, where she researches and teaches global issues of children at risk, including those who are adopted. She has researched a wide range of topics related to adoption, including factors impacting birthparents to make the adoption decision, openness in international adoptions, feasibility of intra-family and in-country adoptions. She is currently working on a paper on adoption ethics and the internet, and another on applying a children's rights approach to best practice. She is a former adoption social worker, president of the Utah Adoption Council, founder and director of an agency to prevent and treat child abuse, and a guardian ad litem attorney for children in the public child welfare system. She has assisted several governments of sending countries to establish laws, regulations, and services to birth families contemplating adoption.

Susan Livingston Smith, the Program and Project Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, is a leading scholar in the field of post-adoption services. A licensed clinical social worker and Emerita Professor of Social Work at Illinois State University, she has published books and numerous articles in scholarly journals on adoption-related subjects. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognized her pioneering work, along with that of Dr. Jeanne Howard, with its 2002 Excellence Award for applied scholarship and research. Smith also is a recipient of the Angels in Adoption Award (2006).