Panel: To Search or Not To Search (October 2020)

Suzanne Bachner is a domestic adoptee and native New Yorker, adopted into a closed adoption through Louise Wise Services. Suzanne’s award-winning hit play, The Good Adoptee, (TheGoodAdoptee.com) about her search for her origins and first/birth parents in the face of NYS’s sealed records, has toured across the US and has been part of law and life-changing adoptee rights advocacy. The Good Adoptee is currently being produced as groundbreaking virtual theatre. As a once ambivalent and then completely obsessed searcher, Suzanne is passionate about empowering and supporting her fellow adoptees in their searches, stalls and decisions not to search.

 

Panel: Adoptees and Mother's Day (May 2020)

Laura was adopted domestically as an infant. She has been in reunion with her biological mother since she was 19 years old, shortly after making an adoption plan for her eldest son. Her son, now 22 years old, was entrusted to a family in a semi-open infant adoption. They reunited when he was 16 years old and now have regular contact. Laura is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has worked as a professional in adoption, as a medical social worker, and as a therapist in community mental health. She is parenting her 12-year-old and 1.5-year-old sons. Laura is actively involved in supporting open record laws in the state of Oregon.

 

Panel: Adoptee Liberation or Exploitation: Pros and Cons of DNA testing (July 2020)

Kara is a transracial adoptee from South Korea, at the age of two she came to the United states where she was raised in Michigan, she now lives in Amsterdam. Kara was able to find a nephew through a DNA match which recently led her to find her biological father. She has worked to legally prove that he is her father which would make it possible for them to meet. This experience proved to be much more complex because of hostility from other family members. Kara is passionate about sharing her experience on a world platform, with the hope that she is able to uplift the adoptee voice to secure fundamental adoptee rights and ultimately bring effective change for the future.

 

Panel: Adoptee Therapists (November 2020)

Dr. Susan Branco was born in Colombia, South America, adopted by US parents, and raised outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a licensed professional counselor and clinical assistant professor in a clinical mental health counseling graduate program. For over 14 years she maintained an independent practice serving members of the adoption kinship network before transitioning to academia. Dr. Branco's research on transracial adoption and Colombian adoptees has been published in peer reviewed journals and she frequently presents on topics related to transracial adoption and training practices for counselors of Color. She still practices professional counseling with underinsured and underserved clients most of whom identify as immigrants and are Spanish speaking.

 

Panel: Adoptees and Parenting or Deciding Not to Parent (April 2020) 

A.J. , an Indian adoptee, at 1 year old, was raised in Wisconsin and New Jersey. He is the parent of four-year-old Sonali and eight-month old Valentine and husband to Sasmita, an Indian immigrant. He and Sasmita are raising their children with ties to their Indian roots, while recognizing they live in the U.S and in Western culture. The birth of his daughter Sonali was a profound event for him, as she is his first biological connection in 36 years. Sasmita’s family resides in India and they traveled there in 2017, and have plans to return within the next two years. AJ blogs and can be found on Twitter @adoptedkeralite.