JCICS 2003 Board Members

The current Joint Council Board is composed of ten members. Seven of the current Board members served on the Board last year, while three were elected to the Board at the Joint Council Conference in April 2003.

President

Judy Stigger, a licensed clinical social worker at The Cradle, is a therapist serving any family or individual touched by adoption. She also offers parent training for several area adoption agencies and consults with parent groups, schools and other professionals. She was formerly the Director of International Adoption for The Cradle. She is the Content Consultant for Conspicuous Families, a web-based family preparation program found under www.AdoptionLearningParnters.org. Judy presents at national and area seminars, authored a book, Coping with Infertility, plus several articles, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Adoptive Families Magazine. She was named an Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption. Judy and her husband are the adoptive parents of two grown, special needs and cross-racially placed, children.

, Vice President

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 that is 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. Deb is the mother of nine children ranging in age from three years to 28 years and has three grandchildren. Three of her children have special needs, shaken baby syndrome, cerebral palsy and fetal alcohol syndrome.

, Treasurer

Ms. 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.

, Secretary

New to the Board, 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.

Donna Clauss has been the Executive Director of Rainbow House International for 18 years. She is a LMSW and also holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Education. Donna has been involved with Joint Council for over 18 years and has been very active with the Education Committee as well as the Committees working on the Hague Convention and COA. She helped to develop the JCICS Parent Preparation System.

New to the Board this year, Rebecca Hackworth is the Director of Social Services for Dillon International, Inc. in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a licensed clinical social worker. She helped develop Dillon's India program and now directs the agency's China and Haiti programs. She teaches a quarterly class on the Physical and Emotional Care of Newly Adopted Children. Rebecca did an extensive research project with their agency's families over the last 30 years that was published in the November 2002 issue of Adoption Today magazine. She has served as President of the Oklahoma Adoption Coalition in the past and remains active in that organization made up of public and private adoption agencies, adoption attorneys, adoptive parents and adult adoptees within their state. She is the mother of two adopted children from Haiti and four step children (three of whom were adopted domestically). She has served on the board of directors for the Foundation for the Children of Haiti since 1981.

Rosemary Martin joins the Board this year and is the Executive Director at Carolina Adoption Services. She has a masters degree in social work and over 30 years experience as a clinician and agency administrator. Her clinical experience includes years of working with adoptive parents and birth mothers considering adoption. Rosemary is both a NC licensed clinical social worker and licensed marriage and family therapist.

Ms. McFadden is the Executive Director of International Children's Alliance, in Washington, DC. and the mother of two children from Eastern Europe. For much of her career, she has focused on advocacy for children and adults with disabilities. She has served as Commissioner of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, during the administration of President George Bush. She has also provided consulting services to foreign governments, as well as to U.S. companies and educational institutions, regarding programs that foster independence, productivity, and integration into society for people with disabilities. She serves on numerous boards and committees. This year, as part of her Joint Council activities, she will chair the Directors' Exchange, which will attempt to identify pressing concerns of adoption agency directors and outline proposed solutions.

Cynthia Peck is the Azerbaijan program coordinator for FCVN in Denver, CO. Cynthia holds degrees in English and Psychology and has been involved in the adoption field for over twenty-five years. She is a single adoptive parent of 8 children, now young adults, from Korea, Vietnam and the US. She has founded international adoption agencies and parent support groups. She was the publisher of Roots and Wings Adoption Magazine, which recently merged with Adoption TODAY, and is the co-founder of Fostering Families TODAY. She is the author of Parents at Last: Celebrating Adoption and the New Pathways to Parenthood. She also is a homestudy educational caseworker for several New Jersey agencies and a family trainer for Kidsave International.

Mr. Pitkowsky is the current Vice President of the Adoptive Parents Committee, Inc. (APC), a parent support group serving over 3,000 New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut families. He is also President of the New York City chapter. He has represented APC at Joint Council, the Hague Alliance, and the Advisory Council on Intercountry Adoption (ACIA); he serves on the Executive Board of ACIA. He has provided testimony on Capitol Hill, chaired and co-chaired APC conferences, and led workshops for the Open Door Society and NACAC conferences. He has two children adopted from Latin America.