CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES
Dear Wonderful You, Letters to Adopted
& Fostered Youth
JoAnne
Bennett
After being placed for adoption at birth, Bennett’s
adoption journey has been winding and full of twists and turns, but she
reflects on her many blessings — raising three wonderful daughters alongside
her loving husband of 39 years. Her passions are writing and making a
difference in young people’s lives. Helping children see that they have voices
that truly matter is her heart-felt desire. She believes that loving out loud
and treating one another with kindness and respect is a way of positively
changing the world. JoAnne’s most recent credits include a contribution to the
book, Adoption Reunion in the Social Media Age, An Anthology, a story in
a book titled, One for the Road and a publication in Chicken Soup for
the Soul: Teens Talk Middle School.
Website:
http://storiesbyjb.com/
Thomas
Park Clement
THOMAS PARK CLEMENT was born
in Seoul, Korea in 1952.
He received a Psychology
Degree from Indiana University (1978) and two Electrical Engineering Degrees
from Purdue University (1985/1987). Clement also attended the University of
Delaware, Bonn University (Bonn, Germany) and Berkshire College (Pittsfield,
Massachusetts).Clement is the recipient of numerous awards including:
* AKA Inaugural Role Model Award July 25th, 1999
*Distinguished Alumnus Award, Purdue School of Engineering, 2000 (one given per year from a pool of all Alumni)
*Appointed by South Korean President KimDaeJung to 2002 Advisory Committee on Unification
*Supplier of the Year Award 2007 by Healthtrust Purchasing group
Clement’s U.S. Medical Patents include: 37 awarded, 4 pending
He is currently President / CEO of Mectra Labs Inc. started in 1988, a manufacturer and distributor of laparoscopic surgical devices.
Additionally he is President/CEO of Truepeny Publishing Corp, Acroventions Laboratories LLC and Elegro Inc.
In 2012, Clement published his memoir Dust of the Streets.
Clement is involved in humanitarian missions to countries in need of food and medicine. He received the President’s Call to Service Award 2014.
Brenda
Cotter
BRENDA
COTTER is a lawyer, an adoptee, and the parent of two beautiful and amazing
daughters adopted from China. She is thrilled to participate in this project
with her daughter Charlotte. Brenda was born in 1956, grew up in West
Springfield, MA and currently lives in Newton, MA.
CHARLOTTE COTTER was adopted
at five months old from Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu Province China and grew up in
the Boston area. She is one of the co-founders of China’s Children
International, a global support and networking organization that aims to
empower Chinese adoptees all over the world by providing an inclusive community
for all of us who share this common beginning. She is currently an
undergraduate at Yale University where she plans to major in East Asian Studies
with a focus on China. In her free time, she loves volunteering in the
community, practicing her Chinese by watching Chinese films, and walking her
two dogs. She would like to dedicate her submission to her mother, Brenda, who
has always been a supportive and guiding force in her life.
Website:
www.chinaschildreninternational.org
Laura
Dennis
LAURA DENNIS was born and adopted in New Jersey and
raised in Maryland. She earned a B.A. and M.F.A. in dance performance and
choreography, but gave up aches and pains and bloody feet in 2004 to become a
stylish, sales director for a biotech startup. Then with two children under the
age of three, in 2010 she and her husband sought to simplify their lifestyle
and escaped to his hometown, Belgrade. While the children learned Serbian in
their cozy preschool, Laura recovered from sleep deprivation and wrote Adopted Reality, A
Memoir, available on Amazon. She blogs at Expat (Adoptee) Mommy
and The Lost Daughters.
Website:
www.laura-dennis.com
Peter Dodds
PETER
DODDS was born in Germany, to a German mother and father. Relinquished to an
orphanage, he was adopted by American parents, one of 10,000 German children
adopted by United States' citizens during the Cold War. Peter's memoir, Outer Search Inner Journey, is the first
book written on international adoption by a foreign-born adoptee. An avid
writer and passionate speaker, Peter's delivered keynote addresses in New
Zealand and Canada while his writings have appeared in numerous publications
and websites. A former Army Ranger, he's now working on adapting Outer Search Inner Journey to film.
Website:
www.peterfdodds.com
Mei-Mei Akwai Ellerman
(co-editor)
Born
in the US and adopted at 7 months, Mei-Mei Ellerman studied at Boston
University, the University of Geneva, and the Liceo Michelangiolo in Florence.
She holds a doctorate in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard. After
30 years of teaching Italian literature at Boston institutions, she now focuses
on research, writing, social activism and Reiki.
Website:
http://www.anyadiary.com/
Ming Foxweldon (白宜民）
MING FOXWELDON
was adopted from Kunming, Yunnan, China when she was three and a half years
old. She left China and moved to Wisconsin, where she met her older sister, and
younger brother (adopted from another country). After a few years, her family
moved to New Hampshire, where she spent much of her childhood.
Foxweldon
attended both public and private schools. After graduating high school she
chose to study at the University of Vermont. Four years flew by, she graduated
with a B.A. (Chinese Language (Mandarin) and also minored in Anthropology.
In 2011,
Foxweldon chose to study abroad in China, (Kunming), for 6 months. Additionally
her involvement with China’s Children International, as member and new
committee member, opened new doors. Two years later she returned for more
adventures in China and its neighboring countries. As a Chinese adoptee, her
interests in China have only grown from art to zoo life. Her hopes are to
continue this important work, and share ideas to others so that they may be
more informed.
Foxweldon
anxiously waits for what the future holds. She thanks the past for teaching her
how to be present and what she can do to be better for the future.
SUZANNE GILBERT was given this
name before she was relinquished by her mother and placed in foster care. She
has reclaimed it for her writing. She shares many of the hurdles of
international adoptees because her first mother lives overseas. That mother found her with the
first phone call occurring one afternoon when Suzanne’s adoptive mother was
visiting – launching a journey for all of them. Eventually Gilbert searched successfully for her birth father and
siblings.
Gilbert is working on
a second novel that intertwines the stories of secret fathers.
Rosita
Gonzalez
Adopted in 1968 at the age of one, Rosita is a
transracial, Korean-American, Holt International adoptee. Her road has been
speckled with Puerto Rican and Appalachian relatives, including her
perfectly-blended, multiracial sister, the natural child of her adoptive
parents. While quite content with her role as a “Tennerican,” her curiosity has
grown recently as her children explore their own ethnic identities. She has
discovered that her children, the second generation of adoptees, have inherited
her racial ambivalence. As a result, Rosita has recently started her search for
her natural family. With the help of G.O.A.’L., she visited Korea in August
2014 and fell in love with her birth country. When she is not supporting her
children on their individual paths, Rosita spends her time as an art educator,
ceramicist, art photographer and activist. She is passionate about issues of
race, gender and adoption. She shares her adventures as an adoptee and parent
on her blog, mothermade.
Website:
http://mothermade.blogspot.com
Lynn
Grubb
LYNN GRUBB was placed
into closed domestic adoption as an infant and adopted through the Cradle of
Evanston, Ilinois. She grew up with her adopted brother and parents in warm and
cheerful Centerville, Ohio. She graduated from Wright State University and has
worked in the legal field for the majority of her career, including
volunteering as a child advocate for her local Juvenile Court, CASA/GAL
program. Lynn has been married to Mark (her biggest supporter) for 23 years,
has a 20 year old son named Matthew and became an adoptive parent to a
beautiful daughter in 2005.
Lee
Herrick
LEE HERRICK is the author of This Many Miles from Desire and Gardening
Secrets of the Dead. His poems and essays appear widely, in literary anthologies
and college textbooks such as Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice and Visions
Across the Americas. He was born in Daejeon, South Korea and adopted at ten
months old to California in the United States. He is a professor, poet, and
parent. He lives with his wife and daughter in Fresno, California, where he
teaches at Fresno City College and in the MFA Program at Sierra Nevada College.
Soojung
Jo
SOOJUNG JO is a contributing
writer for the Lost Daughters blog (www.thelostdaughters.com)
and contributing author for several adoption-related anthologies in
development. She wrote for the
now-retired blogs Faiths and Illusions
and Grown in My Heart. Soojung’s connection to adoption is
threefold: adoptee, biological mother,
and adoptive mother. She was reunited
with her first family in 2013, and is now learning to navigate post-reunion
life with both Korean and American families.
A memoir about her adoption and reunion experiences is in
development. Soojung lives in Southern
California with her husband and four children, who supply constant inspiration
and entertainment.
Website:
www.soojungjo.com
Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen
LUCY
CHAU LAI-TUEN
made in Hong Kong and exported to the UK as a
transracial adoptee. Lucy is a dyslexic actor, published writer, filmmaker,
trainer and transracial adoptee advocate, who loves Dim sum, Yorkshire puddings
and tea.
First
professional job, female lead in the British feature film PING PONG (1987),
directed by Po Ch’ih Leong. First UK feature to look at the history and issues
of the British-Chinese community.
Other
films include Secrets & Lies,
Something Good:The Mercury Factor
Theatre
credits include: Julius Caesar-Bristol
Old Vic; Drink the Mercury nominated for a TMA (first British
East Asian actress to be nominated for a major theatre award); Hungry Ghosts Tim Luscombe. Plenty dir. by Thea Sharrock
TV
credits include: Prime Suspect 2;
Eastenders; Lovejoy
Radio
credits include: Words On A Night Breeze, Bound Feet and
Western Dress.
Lai-Tuen
is currently editing her independent documentary Abandoned, Adopted, Here
2011
Lai-Tuen wrote & performed her solo theatre piece There Are Two Perfectly Good Me’s: One dead, the other unborn, a play looking at the issues of
growing up as a transracial adoptee. Lucy is hoping to tour internationally so
is looking for a producer.
Lai-Tuen
is working on two new full-length theatre plays.
Website:
http://www.lucysheen.com
Jeff Leinaweaver, PhD.
DR.
JEFF LEINAWEAVER is an internationally-known
storyteller, and sustainability practitioner who works with leaders,
organizations and communities on how to use story and storytelling to create
change and influence the emergence of a more globally sustainable and socially
just civil society. Through the power of story and the study of
narrative, Jeff is a leading voice on how storytelling creates our social
worlds and sculpts our identities.
As
a performing storyteller, Jeff shares in the telling of the old stories –
myths, folk tales and fairy tales from many different cultures around the
world. Jeff believes the old stories are alive and inform us on how to deepen
our connection with each other, nature and our own mythic journey.
Additionally,
Jeff represents a first generation of
internationally adopted scholars and social researchers studying and re-framing
the conversation on international adoption, global citizenship and human
development.
Jeff
holds a PhD in Human Development and Organizational Systems with a
specialization in narrative systems and communication. His
most recent publications on adoption include
Storytelling Narrative Marginality
– on Becoming a Global Human, and The Coordinated Management of a Culturally
Diffused Identity: Internationally
Adopted People and the Narrative Burden of Self.
Website:
www.jeffleinaweaver.com
J.S. London
Writing as J.S. London, Jennifer Bao Yu ‘Precious Jade’ Jue-Steuck of
Laguna Beach (Orange County), California, is a graduate of New York
University’s Tisch School of the Arts and Harvard University, where she
was a Bill & Melinda Gates Scholar.
Born to a birthmother from Jiangsu Province,
China, Jennifer was adopted by an American couple from Los Angeles in 1979. She
is founder of Chinese Adoptee Links (CAL) International - G2, the first
global group created by and for the 150,000 Chinese adoptees in 26 countries,
and is a co-founder of their One World Blog (ChineseAdoptee.com).
Inspired by her (adoptive) mother's life and battle with ovarian cancer, INSPIRATION ICE CREAM is a foodie memoir
fundraiser to raise awareness about the effects of adoption motherloss and
child bereavement.
Dan
Matthews
DAN
MATTHEWS is a Korean adoptee currently living in Los Angeles and working in the
entertainment industry. He was raised in the small town of Camarillo, an hour
north of LA, with his parents Lynne, Paul, and Jamie (also adopted). He’s
currently working as a producer for International Secret Agents, an Asian
American entertainment and production company owned by Wong Fu Productions and
Far East Movement.
Website:
http://dan-aka-dan.com/
Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao
JOYCE MAGUIRE PAVAO,
Ed.D., LCSW, LMFT, was the Founder and CEO of Center For Family Connections,
Inc. (CFFC 1995-2012) in Cambridge and New York, Founder and Director of
Riverside After Adoption Consulting and Training (AACT) 2012 to present, and
PACT (pre/post adoption consulting and training) 1982 to present.
Dr. Pavao
has done extensive training, both nationally and internationally. She is a
Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and has consulted to various
public and private child welfare agencies, adoption agencies, schools, and
community groups, as well as probate and family court judges, lawyers, and
clergy. Additionally, she has worked closely with individuals, and families created
by adoption, foster care and other complex blended family constructions.
She has
developed models for treatment and for training using her systemic,
intergenerational, and developmental framework The Normative Crises in the
Development of the Adoptive Family and her book The Family of Adoption (Beacon
Press) has received high acclaim.
Dr. Pavao has received many awards and honors, including the
Children’s Bureau/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Adoption
Excellence Award for Family Contribution (2003) and the Congressional Coalition
on Adoption award for Angels in Adoption (2000).
Website:
www.pavaoconsulting.com
Kaye Pearse
KAYE
was adopted, twice, both times in open, inter-family placements. Although all her parents are deceased, she
was in reunion with her bio-mother for more than a decade prior to her death,
and remains in reunion with her bio-siblings.
After sampling a variety of career paths, from theatre & film to
commercial insurance, Kaye finally found her calling in education. She currently teaches at the Middle and High
School level, and spends time volunteering with various educational programs
and numerous animal rescue groups. Kaye
lives on a small farm where she spends her spare time gardening, beekeeping and
tending to her cats, dogs, chickens and goats.
Karen Pickell
KAREN
PICKELL is a columnist and editor at Lost
Daughters, a communal blog written by and for adopted women. She grew up in
a closed adoption, but reunited with both of her birth parents as an adult. She
is married to an adoptive father of two children from a previous marriage;
together they have two biological children and one rambunctious dog. Karen has
published adoption-related poems, essays, and stories, including those in Perpetual Child: Dismantling the Stereotype
and Lost Daughters: Writing Adoption from
a Place of Empowerment and Peace, which she also co-edited. She holds a
Master of Arts in Professional Writing with a concentration in Creative
Writing. She aims by the end of 2014 to finish drafting the memoir that has
been stalking her for the past several years. Besides reading and writing, she
loves being in and near water, taking photographs, and making up harmonies to
her favorite songs.
Website:
www.karenpickell.com
Jasmine
Renee
JASMINE RENEE has been writing music on guitar and singing for over eight
years. She is studying secondary education with an ESL endorsement and a minor
in Spanish at the University of Northern Colorado. She hopes to travel the
world teaching English. She is involved in a sorority, Alpha Sigma Alpha and
the CUMBRES program as well, which is a scholarship program for teachers that
give students the opportunity to receive an ESL endorsement on top of their
major. She is very excited to be a part of the Dear Wonderful You, Letters to Adopted & Fostered Youth
anthology.
MATTHEW SALESSSES was adopted from Korea at age two.
His most recent books are an essay collection, Different Racisms: On Stereotypes,
the Individual, and Asian American Masculinity, and a novel, I’m Not
Saying, I’m Just Saying. He has written for The New York Times, NPR,
Salon, the Center for Asian American Media, Hyphen, and most often
for The Good Men Project, where he is a columnist and Fiction Editor.
Liz Semons
ELIZABETH SEMONS is a
freelance writer who just finished her memoir Strength of the Broken. Her memoir chronicles her life journey as
an adoptee left to face the world alone. Elizabeth dreams of her story becoming
a screenplay for television or film. She is currently working on a suspense
screenplay called The Lies Beneath Bliss.
When Elizabeth is not writing
she is working at the District Attorney’s office. She is a Legal Assistant and
has worked for Family Support for ten years. Elizabeth likes that she is
helping families, but the real reward comes from helping children.
Elizabeth is also a songwriter
and aspires to become professional. She has used her songwriting abilities to
escape from her reality since childhood. It is through song she expresses her
pain, emotions and thoughts. She uses songwriting as a form of therapy but she
also has a lot of fun creating the lyrics, melodies and stories.
Elizabeth raised two children
on her own. For many years she worked two jobs to make ends meet. Now that her
children are grown, Elizabeth recently resigned from her second job to spend
her time doing what she loves—writing. The creative world is Elizabeth’s
passion.
MAY SILVERSTEIN was born in
Yiyang, Hunan Province, China and adopted when she was nine months old into a
loving and supportive family. She attended the Hopkins School in New Haven,
Connecticut, and is currently a freshman at the University of Chicago.
JOE SOLL 조 살, the author of Adoption Healing... a path to recovery 1 for adoptees, 1 for mothers of adoption loss and 2 for
both, co-author of Evil Exchange, Fatal Flight and
Perilous Passage, is a reunited
adoptee, psychotherapist
and lecturer internationally recognized as an expert in adoption related
issues. He is director and co-founder of Adoption Healing, an
international, non-profit organization consisting of over 470 adoption
agencies, mental health institutions and adoption search and support groups in
8 countries, representing over 500,000 individuals whose lives have been
affected by adoption. Adoption Healing is dedicated to educating the public
about adoption issues and reforming current adoption practices.
Mr.
Soll has appeared on Radio and Television over 300 times, given over 150
lectures on adoption related issues and has been acknowledged, quoted or
featured in over four dozen newspapers, books and magazines.
He
has been portrayed as a therapist in a NBC Made-For-TV movie about adoption,
played himself in the HBO Special "Reno Finds Her Mom", was featured
in the 2000 Global Japan award winning documentary, "Adoption
Therapist: Joe Soll" and in the MediaStorm 2011 documentary Broken Lines
as well as profiled in the International Museum of Women.
Website:
www.AdoptionHealing.com
Julie Stromberg
JULIE
STROMBERG is a reunited adult adoptee who spent six weeks in foster care before
being adopted as an infant. She loves zombie apocalypse shows, fancy food, and
her hard copy of Roget’s thesaurus. A graduate of Loyola University Maryland,
she holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and currently works as a marketing
writer and digital content strategist for a large investment firm. Fortunately,
she has other writing projects going on to offset all of the boring financial
stuff at the office.
Website: www.juliegmstromberg.com
Amanda
H.L. Transue Woolston, LSW
AMANDA H.L. TRANSUE
WOOLSTON is an author, speaker, and licensed social worker with a
Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in social work. Amanda has served the
adoption and foster care communities through individual and family clinical
work, group work, writing and presenting, and working for positive policy
change. Her writing and presentations have reached broad audiences through
multiple books, magazines, major news and radio interviews, and conferences, and
she has engaged with legislators at the state and congressional levels on
adoption policy. Amanda is probably best known for her personal
blog, The
Declassified Adoptee.
Website:
www.amandawoolston.com
Angela Tucker
ANGELA
TUCKER is a trans-racial adoptee, adopted from foster care – born in the South
and raised in the Pacific Northwest. At the age of 25 she reunited with some of
her birth relatives, and is still actively searching for another birth sister
as is chronicled in the documentary, Closure. Angela holds a B.A. in
Psychology, regularly gives keynote
speeches at functions around the nation and is a contributing author for two
adoption anthologies; Woven Together and Perpetual Child: Adult
Adoptee Anthology; Dismantling the Stereotype. Angela's most recognized
article is a piece entitled "Do Transracial Adoptees Know Anything About
Transracial Adoption?" which fueled a twitter-storm and the ensuing
hashtag #NPRgate. She also writes a column on Adoptees and ableism for The
Lost Daughters and has been featured in Psychology Today, Adoptive
Families Magazine, Slate.com, and Huffington Post.
Website:
www.theadoptedlife.com
Diane
René Christian (co-editor)
DIANE RENÉ CHRISTIAN founded the AN-YA Project in 2012, after publishing
her debut novel, An-Ya and Her Diary.
As the founder of the AN-YA Project, Christian has
edited/published An-Ya and her Diary: Reader
& Parent Guide as well as Co-edited/published Perpetual Child: Adult Adoptee Anthology, Dismantling the Stereotype.In 2014, Mei-Mei Akwai Ellerman joined Christian as the Co-founder of the AN-YA Project. Together they continue to work towards “Lift ing the literary voices of adoptees”.
Dear
Wonderful You, Letters to Adopted & Fostered Youth is the third book Christian has edited
and published under the AN-YA Project
umbrella.
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