The California Adoption Reform Effort
Brief biographies of committee members
January 2009

Included are short biographies of the six members of the original teleconference meeting which took place in December, as well as bio’s on the advisory committee members. This is a preliminary listing which will expand as the membership develops.

ANNETTE BARAN
515 Ocean Avenue, Apt. SPHD
Santa Monica, CA 90402
10-395-1139
Aebaran@aol.com

To see an interview with Annette, click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/user/adoptionoption

Annette Baran, MSW, ACSW, LCSW, is one of the pioneers in the field of modern adoption. Her training and experience in the field of social work extends for over half a century. Following her MSW in psychiatric social work in 1949, she worked  in public welfare, aiding holocaust survivors, before joining the staff of an adoption agency where she worked in every department, becoming director, a post she held for over a decade. She left there to become director of adolescent drug treatment, and finally into private practice of psychotherapy.

Throughout her professional career, she was a member of NASW, Child Welfare League, Society for Clinical Social Work, and American Adoption Congress. As co-author of The Adoption Triangle, the first book to advocate opening sealed records, she helped to bring about significant changes in the institution of adoption and influenced the practice in agencies throughout the world. Her career has included clinical and administrative work in adoption agencies, teaching and training, research and writing, expert witnessing, consultation, and the private practice of psychotherapy. She is also co-author of Lethal Secrets, the first book to examine the emotional aspects of donor insemination and other alternative methods of reproduction. Besides her many writing credits, she has also appeared as a recognized expert on numerous television shows and documentaries, keynoted conferences, and lectured in foreign universities. In her retirement she continues to act as a consultant and participant in issues relating to opening sealed records in adoption.

SUSAN CASTAGNETTO
463 W. 10th Street
Claremont, CA 91711
909-624-6369 (home)
909-731-7179
Scastagn@ScrippsCol.Edu

Susan Castagnetto is an adoptee who was born in San Francisco and grew up in Santa Clara and San Jose.  She received her B.A. from the University of Santa Clara and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University.  She is married and has two children, ages 14 and 16, and currently lives in Claremont, California, where she works as Coordinator of the Intercollegiate Women’s Studies program of the Claremont Colleges and teaches Philosophy and Women’s Studies.  For several years, she did extensive volunteer work with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (now Consumer Watchdog), working to pass legislation addressing health care reform, the energy crisis and truth in political advertising. 

In 2000-2001, she played a central role in a successful ballot initiative campaign in Claremont to stop conflicts of interest in city politics, one of several such campaigns sponsored by FTCR in California cities.  In 2000-2001, she served as East L.A. regional coordinator for California Open, a campaign to open adoptee records through legislation.  In 2007-2008, she was a fellow with the Women's Policy Institute, a program sponsored by the Women's Foundation of California to train leaders of grassroots and community organizations in policy-making.  As a member of the WPI's criminal justice group, she worked on successful legislation, AB 2070 (Bass), that addresses the situation of incarcerated parents whose children are in foster care.  The legislation allows a modest extension of the time limits for incarcerated parents to meet the requirements for reunification, without which those with even very short sentences face termination of parental rights and the permanent loss of their children.  She is also the co-convenor of the Women & Criminal Justice Network, a Southern California advocacy organization addressing issues facing women in prison, and is on the Board of Directors of Crossroads, a transitional residence for women on parole in Claremont.

She is interested in assisting the C.A.R.E. in any way she can be helpful, including establishing ties between the committee and the Women’s Foundation of California, and helping strategize for a successful legislative effort.

SCOTT LOWELL
2862 Westbrook Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
H: (323)876-7679
M: (323) 363-3403
E: scolo@mac.com
www.scottlowell.com

Scott is best known for his role as "Ted Schmidt" in Showtime’s popular and critically acclaimed series "Queer As Folk" for which he was twice nominated for a Prism Award. The groundbreaking and provocative series originally ran in the U.S from 2000 –2005 and is currently airing on LOGO and in countries all over the world.  His acting resume is quite extensive and impressive, including successful commercial campaigns, guest roles in sit-coms, dramatic series, films, and stage work, as well as writing and development. For more details, check out his website, www.scottlowell.com.

Scott was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in the suburbs of New Haven, Connecticut and was educated at both Connecticut College and the National Theatre Institute. He’s lived in Los Angeles since 1998. In addition to his work in his profession, he has been very active in a number of civil rights organizations (including being a "straight advocate" for the Human Rights Campaign) and political campaigns as well as appearing as a presenter and Host of a number of GLAAD Awards shows. In his spare time, Scott enjoys painting, hiking (especially with his dog), traveling, cooking, discovering new bands while keeping up with old favorites and occasionally even playing the french horn. He is an avid reader and an awful, but effective, ping-pong player. Scott currently resides in Los Angeles but still cheers for the Bulls and Cubs.

An adoptee, Scott serves on the board of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and hence, is interested in the issue of adoptee rights. With a long background in being a spokesperson for human rights, he is interested in representing C.A.R.E. in a spokesperson role. Using his own story and his passion for the issue, he hopes to involve other "celebs" to come out of the adoption closet to help out. 

Here is Scott’s personal story:

I was born and adopted in Denver Colorado in 1965.  My family moved back to the east coast soon after my adoption and I was raised just outside New Haven, CT.  While I don't remember the exact moment I was told of my adoption, my first memory involving the topic took place when I was four years-old and hanging out on a jungle gym in my back yard with one of my neighborhood friends.  I must have just told him about my being adopted (perhaps I had been told recently) and he posed the question: "Sooooo, they're like your step-parents then, right?" (in reference to my adoptive parents).  "No," I said plainly "they're my Parents.  They're the only parents I've ever known."  This basically sums up my attitude about the whole thing while growing up.  My older brother (by 5 years) was "natural born" (as they used to say) and my older sister (by 14 months) had also been adopted in Denver.  Basically the only ones who ever had interest in my birth records were girlfriends in college who wanted to know my ethnic background.  Some of their guesses ran from Mexican to Greek.

In 1994 while going through "couples therapy" with my then fiancée I decided to talk to my mother about my adoption.  It was a wonderfully open and interesting conversation involving why they decided to adopt and how I came to them.  At the end of the conversation she told me she had a "general information sheet" about my birth parents that the adoption agency had given her in her safe deposit box.  She sent me a copy.  It was very vague, but contained ages (my birth father was in his 40's, my birth mom around 30), health, description and a bit of ethnic background (Romanian and Dutch/Irish for those who are interested). 

In 1997 my grandmother passed away and, after her memorial service, my mother admitted to us that there was all this bad blood between them (dating back to childhood) that we kids were never aware of. As she told us about it I saw all this anger and rage in her that was never going to be resolved.  Her mother was dead and they could never find a way to reconcile their differences.  I began thinking about regret.  I knew from the info. sheet that my birth father would be in his 70's if he was still alive and while it didn't feel VITAL to me to find them at that time I thought to myself "it might be someday and if I waited too long it might be too late."  So I decided to look then and there even if it was just to get a more detailed medical history (as I knew I wanted to have children one day).  I explained this to my mom and she was very understanding.  She gave me the name of the adoption agency in Denver as well as the hospital I was born at.  I phoned them and they informed me that Colorado was a "mutual consent" state; meaning that there would have to be mutual consent on both sides (birth parents and adoptees) before either side would be allowed access to the original files.  SO, in order to get any records I would have to petition the Denver Juvenile courts (the agency kindly recommended that I put "for medical and mental health reasons" on the petition) and if  they approved they would assign me an intermediary who I would then have to pay a fee to (I think it was something like $400.00 at the time) and the intermediary would be allowed access and then do the search for me.    So I agreed to this all and was assigned an intermediary named Mary Kathrens.  Throughout the two years of searching there were many strange interludes.  The oddest (and the one that makes me passionate about wanting to change these closed records laws) came when I had to fax some information to Mary Kathrens.  I went to a Kinko's in Chicago (where I was living at the time) and needed to phone her before I sent the fax so she could turn her machine on.  When she answered the phone she told me she had some exciting news; she had gotten my original adoption records and social worker's file and did I want her to read me some of the non-specific things in it?  "Suuuure," I said somewhat nervously.  She then proceeded to tell me some of the most personal and intimate details of my origins (including the fact that my birth parents had tried to abort me but my birth mother had stopped the procedure while it was going on as she had a very low threshold of pain) right there over the phone while I'm in the middle of a crowded Kinko's.  This STRANGER was reading this stuff to me in this odd matter-of-fact voice like it was an everyday tale from Reader's Digest.  SHE was allowed to read this stuff but not ME.  How wrong is that?

After two years and through a lucky break she was finally able to find them.  They were still together (they had gotten married about 6 months after I was born) and in fact my birth father was in his 80's not his 70's (so it was a good thing I DIDN'T wait to search).  When they were first contacted they said they were not interested in contact.  I was fully prepared for this answer as I couldn't imagine a more difficult decision for a woman to make than to give up her child and I could FULLY understand her not wanting that brought back up 33 years later.  I asked Mary Kathrens to try again just to see if she could get medical history at least.  When she spoke to them again she found out that their main concern was that I was someone in therapy who's therapist wanted me to find "these people" and confront them thereby ripping open all these 33 year old wounds and then leaving them to deal with the consequences.  She convinced them that that was not the case with me and they finally agreed to have contact.  I got their information 3 days before my 34th birthday and phoned them on the big day.

I've had an incredible relationship with them both.  My birth father ended up passing away about four years after I found them but I talk every few weeks with my birth mom (even flew to Atlanta for her surprise 75th this summer) and consider myself VERY fortunate to have reunited with them.  I'm particularly pleased that I was able to help release my birth father from the huge burden of guilt he was carrying (he had forced my birth mom into and arranged the adoption) before he died.

LINDA “Mama-O” OROZCO

3109 Norstrom Way
Sacramento CA 95833
916-359-6777 - Home; 916-212-0142 - Cell
Email:  MamaO@winfirst.com

Linda Orozco, affectionately known as Mama O to the adoptees, is a birth mother to a son born in 1967 at Fairhaven Home for Unwed Mothers in Sacramento. She has two other sons, Robert and Chris, that she raised. Linda first stepped out of the birthmother closet in 1998 and immediately sought support for her birthmother journey by attending PACER Sacramento Triad Support Group. Linda has been an advocate for adoptee rights and education and openness in adoption for 10 years and facilitates the PACER triad group in Sacramemento. Linda is a member of Concerned United Birthparents (CUB), American Adoption Congress (AAC), CA Open Records,  Sunflower Birthmothers and Sacramento Triad for Adoptee Rights.  In October 2007, Linda participated in 2 Public Service Interviews with KNCI and KGBY in Sacramento to promote RegDay. Linda chaired the 2005 PACER Adoption Unity Event. In 2006, Ms. Orozco spoke on a panel at the PACER/AAC sponsored seminar The Changing Picture of Adoption in Sausalito.  Additionally, she participated on a panel at the CUB retreat in Tampa, FL addressing lessons learned on her birthmother journey. Linda found her birthson (Dec 1998) and is patiently waiting for a response. In the meantime, she continues her work for adoptee rights, education and support.

Additionally, Linda has been a volunteer for Women's Aglow Prison Ministry for 14 years. She is currently President Emeritus and Administrator of the CA Association of Equal Rights Professionals (www.caerp.org) a statewide civil rights organization. Linda volunteers as a mentor to Women's Empowerment Program, a program to assist homeless women get back on their feet, "Ending Homelessness, one Woman at a Time". She retired from the Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) as a Criminal Justice Specialist in 2004 and currently works part-time as a Retired Annuitant at OES in the EEO Office. She also attends Bayside of South Sacramento (BOSS) Church at Sac City College.  She is passionate about adoptee rights in California:

The CA Adoption Reform Effort (CARE) is important to me because I believe in equal rights.  I believe an adult adoptee should have the same right as any citizen to receive their original birthcertificate with full knowledge of their birthparents, their ethnic background, etc.  To take that away from an adult adoptee is to treat them as a child that cannot be trusted with basic knowledge of themselves. I may not have the specific knowledge of the laws and past of adoption, as some do, but I will be available to do whatever it takes to get this done.  I can do lots of legwork here in Sacramento, walk the halls of the capitol, research, organize, etc.

GENE SPERRING 
442 Second Street E
Sonoma, CA 95476
707-938-8381
sperring@vom.com

As an adoptive parent for 38 years, I never have felt the need of protection by the state of Calif. from my son's and daughter's birth parents. At the time of adoption, I did not ask to live in a world of secrecy so unnatural to families and to humans in general.  This has to change so that so many in the adoptive world can heal. Our modern society no longer believes in the ideas that put forth this punitive legislation. It's time for change.  I am indeed happy with all those who were present the other night and am impressed with what they had to say.  I would consider myself rather new to this world of reform, but I spent 37 years in the teaching profession working to change the concept that rewards and punishment are the best way to effectively teach. They are not! I know what social battles are all about.

I am proud to say that in the last four years I have educated myself to this amazing adoptive world that was right in front of me for 38 years. I can now say that I am extremely awake thanks to all of you who were there ahead of me. The Portland AAC Conference put me over the top. I am working hard now as a Pacer Board member, I've stepped in as AAC Northern Calif. Rep., and this project will not in any way take too much of my time.  After all, I'm retired!

I see my strongest strength going forward as walking the halls of the Capitol and meeting Legislators and their staffs.  I can say that I have some familiarity with the Capitol since I worked there every day Jan. through June for three years while in college at Sac State.  I was a tour guide for the Joint Legislative Committee dealing with school visits. I know it has changed a lot from 1959-1961, but I think I could still find my way around and maybe "bend a few minds"and bring some awareness in our behalf.

My own story as an adoptive father is that my wife, Cathie and I have been extremely loving and supportive parents to our son Stuart, 38, and daughter Jennifer, 35, who were both adopted from Children's Home Society of Calif.  Open Adoption was, of course, not an option at that time.  As such, I now realize that when our children came to us we went into a sleep and accepted the secret world that came with our two beautiful children. Along with that secrecy came a fear of discussion with either of them about adoption and their birth parents. We did do what we were told however and informed them of their status at an early stage with no real discussion afterwards.  How deep was our sleep. On the practical side I guess we did well however, because our two are successful adults, are well liked, and are very loving. They each have given us a granddaughter and are very good parents.

In 1993 life changed and searches began for birthparents with background information coming from CHS to start with.  After 13 years a wonderful reunion occurred for my son with a birthmother, three siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. We all think of ourselves as one big family now.  Our job was, and is, support and facilitation. Nothing could be better. Jennifer, in her stand-offish way, has completed her search with our help, waiting for the right time to meet her mother and full sister here in northern Calif.  We will do the same for her, encourage and support her in knowing who she is.  Every person deserves that.

I look forward to working with all involved. California needs this.

JEAN STRAUSS
8100 NE Hidden Cove Road
Bainbridge Island, WA  98110
206/842-5344 (home)
909/261-2012 (cell)
JeanStrauss1955@yahoo.com
www.JeanStrauss.com

A graduate of UC Berkeley and USC, in 2004 Strauss shifted to the medium of film to document adoption reform in the early twenty-first century. The Triumvirate, her first film, told the story of her reunion with her birthmother and birth grandmother. This award-winning short was showcased by American Cinematheque’s in their 2005 program honoring women directors and later was selected by the San Diego Cinema Society as one of the top eight shorts of 2005.

Her other short documentaries include two more adoption films which have been used in numerous states and on college campuses to educate legislators and social workers and others about the need for adoption reform. Vital Records is a twenty-two minute film focusing on the pros and cons regarding adoptee access to original records being debated in numerous states. Holding Hands, a ten minute short which premiered at the Kinship Institute Conference in March of 2006, examines the relationship between Strauss and her brother, Bobby. The film addresses the issue of lifelong sibling severance in adoption and foster care. For the last three years she has been working on her first feature documentary. For the Life of Me follows middle-aged and elderly adoptees nationwide who have been denied access to their original identity. Premiering at the American Adoption Congress this coming April, the film will explore the lifelong impact of the secrecy in closed adoptions.   

My inspiration to be involved in adoption reform in California is an outgrowth of my work filming legislative efforts in several states. As a native Californian, and one who to this day cannot see my own original birth record, I feel deeply committed to seeing my home state restore the right to identity for all adoptees in California.

In addition to the above core group involved in our first meeting, the following individuals are key to the California Adoption Reform Effort:

PAULA BENOIT

State Senator Paula Benoit of Maine is widely credited with having been the tipping point for passing legislation which on January 2, 2009, made original birth certificates available to all adoptees in the state.

Maine had a law on the books for more than five decades stating that records of all adoptions finalized on or after Aug. 8, 1953, are confidential unless a probate court judge rules otherwise. Herself an adoptee, Benoit was born at Maine Medical Center on March 12, 1955. She grew up loved and happy but always felt there was something missing because she didn’t know who her biological family was.  "I never had a living soul who looked like me until I had my son," she said.

When she went to the doctor and was asked about her medical history, she had to say: "I don't know. I have no history. I'm invisible."When doctors diagnosed non-Hodgkins lymphoma in her four years ago, Benoit thought about trying to search for her biological family to learn more about her medical history, but said she didn't have the energy.

As a freshman state senator, she agreed to lobby fellow legislators to support a bill allowing adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates, which bear the names of their birth parents. Opponents to the legislation included the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, which said that releasing birth records to adoptees would violate the privacy of mothers who had been promised their identities would remain secret. Also, the National Council for Adoption and the ACLU stood in opposition. The 52-year-old Republican Benoit wasn't the bill's main sponsor, but she realized that she could speak to it from a unique perspective. Although some legislators are adoptive parents, no lawmaker but herself was adopted. "People didn't understand who the adoptee was," she said. "I really felt the adoptees needed a voice from the floor."

She said that she personally lobbied each legislator to explain to them "what it is like to not know who you are." Ultimately, not only was she instrumental in getting the legislation passed - she also uncovered her biological heritage -- and found out that two of the Democratic lawmakers she has been working with in Augusta are her nephews. "I haven't found a family. I have a family," Benoit said. "What I've found is my identity."

Paula has now left office and intends to assist in adoption reform nationwide. She has already stepped up to the plate in California, speaking with groups and visiting the state capitol in Sacramento in the fall of 2008.  

CAROL BISHOP

Carol is a co-founder and Executive Vice President of Kinship Center located in Salinas, California. She has worked as a social worker, supervisor and administrator since 1965.

Carol trains both professionals and parents, and consults in several areas of agency practice and administration.

In addition to her work with the Kinship Center, she is currently the head of C.A.A.A., the California Association of Adoption Agencies.

PAM HASEGAWA

Pam Hasegawa was born in New York City, and adopted twelve days later. She grew up in various neighborhoods of the city, and after living in several states, spending her teen years in  Illinois. A graduate of Wheaton College, she lived for a time in Los Angeles, where she taught high school and met her future husband, Ruysuke Hasegawa, a Fullbright scholar. They have two children, Sergei and Linnea, and three grandchildren

Pam’s photographs of families and individuals around the world have been used in text books and magazines. Her work has been exhibited in The American Club in Tokyo, Japan, Morristown Memorial Hospital, New Jersey, Morris County libraries, and The Newark Museum of Art. Her work is on permanent display at Morristown’s Cerulean Fine Art Gallery. In addition, she is very active in the Asian Rural Institute (AFARI).

But Pam is most known for her work in the adoption reform movement. Pam, born Rolande Sygne Hampden, has been involved with adoption reform since joining ALMA (Adoptees’ Liberty MovementAssociation) in 1973, NJCARE (NJ Coalition for Adoption Reform and Education) in 1991 and the American Adoption Congress in 1996. Her commitment to rectifying the injustice imposed by the sealed records system on persons living adoption keeps her involved as a grass-roots lobbyist and adoption educator. The “letter to the editor” has become her favorite genre; presenting experiential workshops for adoption professionals and parents with Betsy Forrest and Penny Partridge is an ongoing delight; and working with younger members of the adoption constellation who commit their hearts, minds and energy to adoption reform is a constant source of joy for her. She has been sustained in the long journey toward truth, both personal and communal, by the grace of God, deep friendships forged out of a common understanding of the need for truth in adoption and her family’s abiding support for her work as a “professional volunteer” in the adoption arena.

Pam has been ‘fighting the good fight’ in the New Jersey legislature now for over thirty years. She has sets the standard for never giving up, even after repeated discouragements. The fact that New Jersey has come very close, on numerous occasions, to finally passing access legislation is due in no small measure to her personal tenacity and perseverance.

MARY MARTIN MASON

Mary Martin Mason is based in Minnesota, and has been actively involved in adoptee access legislation in that state for several years. An adoptee, she grew up in an open adoption, and as an adoptive parent is raising her own son, who she adopted as an infant, in an open adoption. Renowned nationwide as an advocate for openness and for access legislation, she often addresses national audiences on issues of adoption including the open adoption. The author of Designing Rituals of Adoption and Out of the Shadows, Birth Fathers Stories, she is the Adoption Clearinghouse Coordinator for MARN (Minnesota Adoption Support and Preservation - MN ASAP) and editor of the N ASAP Family Voices newsletter.

Mary is on the board of the American Adoption Congress and wrote ‘the book’ on how to develop grassroots organizing for access legislation for the AAC. In addition, she has over twenty years experience teaching both in the US and abroad, is a professional trainer in adoption, and is the producer of AdoptTapes, educational videotapes about adoption.

She has been key at supporting the new legislative effort in California.

EILEEN McQUADE

Eileen McQuade, a birthmother, is the president of the American Adoption Congress and a fervent supporter of adoptee access legislation. Residing in Delray Beach, FL, she has been active in the AAC since 2003. She graduated cum laude from Clark University in 1970 and spent 27 years with Aetna Life and Casualty in Hartford, CT. In 1996 she joined the National Council on Compensation Insurance in Boca Raton, FL where she was a Practice Leader in the Actuarial and Economic Services Division. She retired in 2006, and now spends summers in South Windsor, Connecticut near her daughters and their families.

Eileen became pregnant as a college freshman in 1966 and placed her daughter for adoption. She married her daughter’s father two years later and they had two more daughters. Since 1997, Eileen and Dick have been reunited with their first daughter and experienced many joys of reunion. The entire McQuade family presented a workshop entitled “Where is my Rulebook?” at AAC’s 2001 conference in Philadelphia. They have attended a number of AAC conferences and feel that the workshops have helped them to understand the complexities of adoption.

“There is so much work that still needs to be done to educate legislators, professionals, and the general public about what it means to lose family connections. Adoption is not just a life long process; it now spans generations of Americans who lost parents, family and medical history. I am so thankful that my grandsons can now trace their heritage and my daughter knows where she comes from. Through work with the AAC, I hope to make a small contribution to continue to break down the walls of secrecy, lies, and shame in adoption and assisted reproduction”.  

ADAM PERTMAN

Adam Pertman is the Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a national nonprofit that is the pre-eminent research, policy and education organization in its field. Pertman is also the Associate Editor of Adoption Quarterly, the premier research journal dealing with adoption and foster care. And he is the author of the groundbreaking Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America, which has been reviewed as "the most important book ever written on the subject." In addition, he is the author of many chapters and articles on adoption- and family-related issues in books, scholarly journals and mass-market publications.

Pertman was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his writing about adoption in The Boston Globe. His other honors include the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Adoption Council, the Angel in Adoption award from the U.S. Congress' adoption caucus; the Special Friend of Children Award from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; the Dave Thomas Center for Adoption Law's first award for "the nation's greatest contributor to public understanding about adoption and permanency placement issues;" the Friend of Children Award from the ODS Adoption Community of New England; the Century Foundation's prestigious Leonard Silk Journalism Award; the President's Award from the African American Cultural Council of Virginia; the Year 2000 Journalism Award from Holt International Children's Services; and the American Adoption Congress' first award for the journalist who most informed the nation on adoption issues and "for his eloquent witnessing of contemporary adoption."

Pertman's commentaries on families and children have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Miami Herald and on National Public Radio, among others. Articles about him and his book have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines nationwide, including People. He has been a guest on many radio and television programs, including "Oprah," the "Today" show and "Nightline." As a leading expert on adoption and family issues, Pertman is widely quoted in electronic and print media outlets. He has delivered scores of keynote speeches and other presentations in this country and internationally for organizations including the Child Welfare League of America, the American Adoption Congress, the National Academy of Sciences, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Joint Council on International Children's Services, and the National Association of Child Advocates.

Before embarking on his current career, Pertman, 54, was a senior journalist with The Boston Globe for more than two decades. His jobs included foreign editor, Washington news editor, West Coast bureau chief, diplomatic correspondent, national political correspondent, family and children's issues reporter, and restaurant reviewer. His assignments included the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Philippine revolution, the Gulf War, the Middle East peace process, the O.J. Simpson trials, and several presidential elections. He is a member of the Council on Contemporary Families, the editorial advisory board of Adoptive Families magazine, and the National Adoption Advisory Committee of the CWLA. He and his wife, Judy Baumwoll, live in Massachusetts with their two children: Zachary, 12, and Emilia, 9.

ELLEN ROSEMAN

Ellen Roseman has been working in adoption as a facilitator in California for over three decades. Cooperative Adoption was established by Ellen over twenty nine years ago to assist prospective adoptive parents in the open adoption process. She has helped facilitate the placement of over 2,100 infants and older children. Through her work, independent and agency adoptions are facilitated in a supportive nurturing and educational atmosphere. Cooperative Adoption Consultation respects and welcomes working with all family types.

Ellen is a staunch supporter of access legislation, and was a key player in the 2001 effort. A former Miss Nevada with one of the best senses of humor in the adoption reform movement, Eileen’s commitment to dignity, empathy and common sense, her advice and support will be important to C.A.R.E.’s new effort.  

Sharon Roszia

Sharon Kaplan Roszia M.S. entered the field of foster care and adoption in 1963. For the last 14 years, she has worked for the Kinship Center in Southern California as the Program Manager of the special needs foster/adoption program. Ms. Roszia has served in both the public and private child welfare sectors and has maintained a private practice. Her work with Deborah Silverstein on the Seven Core Issues in Adoption is the basis of the Adoption Clinical Training offered through Kinship Center’s Education Institute. Ms. Roszia has had the opportunity to lecture extensively both domestically and abroad. She has authored two books and several articles. She is nationally and internationally recognized as a pioneer in open adoptions. Ms. Roszia is a recipient of many national awards over the years. In 2006, she was honored with the Child Advocate of the Year Award from the North American Council on Adoptable Children and as an Angel in Adoption Award by Congressional Coalition of Adoption Institute. Ms. Roszia is a parent by birth, adoption and foster care.

ELIZABETH SAMUELS

Elizabeth Samuels is a professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law where she teaches courses in the areas of constitutional law and family law. She is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of  Chicago Law School. The subjects of her research and publications include the history of adult adoptees access to original birth records and the current state of laws governing mothers’ consents to the adoption of their newborn infants. Her public service activities includes consulting with adoption law reform advocates as well as other civil rights work.

Elizabeth Samuels covered the history of adult adoptees’ access to their own records in her treatise, “How Adoption Grew Secret in America”. Her theory is that it helps us to understand where we are if we understand how we got here. She became interested in this subject because her sister relinquished a child and they met when her birth niece became an adult. She wondered why it was thought beneficial to make records closed. To her amazement, it hadn’t been thought beneficial for adult adoptees and there were different reasons that had led to the closing of records.

Her examination of adoption law in the United States revealed that, contrary to many assumptions, many states had not sealed records from adoptees until very recently. States like Massachusetts and Alabama only chose to seal the records when adoptees began to voice their need to reconnect with birth family members.

Samuels well researched and brilliant written paper is one of the most important documents about adoption law in recent history. It is key to understanding the history of adoption law, and thus vital to any arguments supporting access legislation.

MARSHA TEMPLE

Marsha Temple is a Los Angeles based attorney whose primary work has been in the representation of hospitals. She is a cum laude graduate of UCLA, and an alumnus of Loyola Law School, where she served as Editor of the Law Review. Her articles have appeared in the law reviews published by UCLA School of Law and USC Law School, as well as The California Journal.

Active in community affairs, she serves on the Board of Governors of Centinela Freeman HealthSystems. She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Venice Family Clinic, and Vice President of the Board of Directors of Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles.

A reunited adoptee, she was the lawyer who wrote AB 1349 in 2001. She has a strong understanding of the California legislative process and is willing to be involved in C.A.R.E. in an advisory capacity.