JCICS 2007 Board Members

The current 2007 Joint Council Board is composed of eleven members. Seven of the Board Members served on the Board in 2006. One member was re-elected and three were newly elected to the Board at the Annual Conference in April 2007.

, President

Rick Gibson earned his BA in psychology from the University of Iowa in 1988. After living in the woods for years, teaching environmental education and counseling boys in a long-term therapy center, Mr. Gibson moved to Minneapolis, MN. In Minneapolis, he counseled grade school children for a number of years then earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of Minnesota. Mr. Gibson began work in adoption at Children’s Home Society & Family Services as a social worker in 1999 and is currently an Adoption Supervisor responsible for Recruitment and Intake for all CHSFS adoption programming.

Vice-President

Lynn Wetterberg is Director of the Uniting Families Foundation, a small agency in Illinois that has received COA accreditation. She is a CPA and also holds an MS degree in human services administration. Her undergraduate training was in elementary education, and she worked in a school district for seven years. She has testified before Congress on international adoption issues and has presented seminars on adoption in the U.S. and abroad. She has also organized a program in Croatia, which trained health workers, social workers, and religious leaders to recognize and treat post traumatic stress disorder in rape victims. She is the mother of children adopted from Eastern Europe. This is Ms. Wetterberg's second term on the Board of Directors, as she served from 2001 - 2005; Ms. Wetterberg served as Treasurer of the Board for 2002 and 2003 and Vice President in 2004 and 2005.

, Secretary

Heather Stultz is the Romania Program Specialist and Post-Placement Coordinator for MAPS International, founded in 1977 by Dawn C. Degenhardt. Ms. Stultz is an active member of the COA Standing Review Committee as well as a co-facilitator of MAPS International’s support evenings for waiting families. Prior to joining MAPS International, Ms. Stultz traveled to both Guatemala and Romania where she worked with low-income families and abandoned children while completing her undergraduate social work education. This is Ms. Stultz's fourth year as Secretary and second term on the Board.

, Treasurer

Jared Rolsky has been the Director of Golden Cradle Adoption Services in Cherry Hill, NJ since 1997. He has been involved with domestic and international adoptions since the early 1980's and has worked to make adoption an accessible and client driven service. Prior to coming to Golden Cradle, Mr. Rolsky was Executive Director or Jewish Family Service of New Haven, CT. There, he expanded the adoption program to include adoptions from South America and Eastern Europe. He has been associated with Council on Accreditation since the mid-1980's and is currently a team leader for COA. Mr. Rolsky was President of the Council of Family Service Agencies of Connecticut, Treasurer of the United Way Executives of CT, board member of the Association of Jewish Family and Children's Agencies and currently Membership Chair and webmaster for the Delaware Valley Adoption Council. He chaired the JCICS Ethics Committee that was charged with the recent Standards of Practice Statement.

Susan Soon-keum Cox is the Vice-President of Public Policy & External Affairs at Holt International. Ms. Soon-keum Cox is a nationally recognized expert on international adoption and child welfare and has testified before several Congressional Committees on those issues. She has been involved in the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption process since it began in the late 1980s and is a member of the Special Commission on the Hague Convention at the Hague. Ms. Soon-keum Cox served on the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid for USAID and was a member of the first White House Commission on Asian Pacific Islanders. She was appointed by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare to be the U.S. spokesperson for intercountry adoption during the 1988 Olympics and founded the International Gathering of Korean Adoptees.

Nancy Fox has been involved in international adoptions for more than 30 years as the Executive Director of Americans for International Aid and Adoption (AIAA), one of the founding members of Joint Council. Previously having served on the Board of Directors and as President of the Board, Ms. Fox is strongly committed to professionalism and good practice in the field of international adoption. Over the years, she has been a birth, foster, and adoptive parent and, recently, an adoptive grandparent. She supports a strong spirit of cooperation between the placing and direct services agencies, adoptive and adoptee groups and medical experts. Ms. Fox believes that she can bring to the Board and the Membership of JCICS experience, vision, and a passion for the concept that children in need of families, anywhere in the world, must be the principle focus of our efforts.

Deb Murphy-Scheumann is the founder and Executive Director of Special Additions, Inc., established in 1993. Special Additions is an international aid and adoption agency accredited by the Council on Accreditation. She has been involved in the field of international adoptions since the adoption of their daughter Allison from Korea in 1985. Ms. Murphy-Scheumann is the mother of nine children ranging in age from 3 to 28 years of age and has three grandchildren. Three of her children have special needs, shaken baby syndrome, cerebral palsy and fetal alcohol syndrome. This is Ms. Scheumann's second term on the Board of Directors as she served from 2002 - 2005. Deb served as Vice-President of the Board in 2003 and President in 2004 and 2005.

Richard Pearlman was elected to the Board in 2006. He is founder of the Family Resource Center (FRC), a Chicago based Illinois licensed child welfare agency since 1987. During his tenure as FRC's Executive Director, Family Resource Center has participated in more than 2,500 adoptions. Mr. Pearlman was first introduced to the field of child welfare as a student intern with a small Quaker college, Friends World College as he lived and worked with street children in Bogota, Colombia. Mr. Pearlman has traveled to Guatemala, China, Ukraine and Russia. Mr. Pearlman is the father of three children, one of whom is adopted.

Kathy Sacco is a licensed clinical social worker with Family & Children's Agency, Inc., who helps facilitate Korean adoptions. She was adopted from Korea at the age of 5 with her biological sister. Ms. Sacco is currently the JCICS Chair of the Korea Caucus. She has advocated for adoptees and adoptive families by presenting at conferences, testifying before the US Congress, serving on the Boards of adoption support groups and traveling to Korea. Her interests include post-adoption services and clinical and ethical standards of adoption practice.

Jody Sciortino was elected to the Board in 2006. She has been in the social work field for 30 years and is presently the Director of Social Work with Kidsave International in Washington, DC. Ms. Sciortino received her MSW from the University of Denver in 1980. Her first 17 years in the field were spent in the mental health arena working with children and families and specializing in abuse, trauma and grief loss. Ms. Sciortino has been the clinic coordinator for a multi-disciplinary outpatient psychiatric clinic; the first trauma social worker at a Level II trauma center; and the director of an accredited international adoption agency.

Keith M. Wallace is founder and CEO of Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA). Mr. Wallace is an attorney and a member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. FTIA is accredited by the Council on Accreditation for Children and Family Services, Inc. (COA). Keith has served on several JCICS committees. He has presented hundreds of seminars on different aspects of international adoption to various audiences. FTIA is active in many aid projects for children. Keith served as Treasurer in 2004.