JCICS 2002 #2 Board Members

Meet the Joint Council Board

The current Joint Council Board is composed of eleven members; additionally, the Previous Board President serves as an Ex Officio Board member. Seven of the current Board members served on the Board last year, while four were elected to the Board at the Joint Council Conference in April.

, 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

Ms. McFadden was the Board Treasurer last year. She 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.

, 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. She serves as one of two Board liaisons to the Ethics and Professional Services Committee.

, Secretary

Ms. Chaya, now Mrs. Crystal Payne, is the Director of International Program Development for Hope for Children in Georgia. An attorney, she helped to draft regulations governing international adoption agencies located in Georgia. She also practiced in such areas as Immigration, Social Security, and Worker' Compensation. Early in her career, she served as an intern in the office of Congressman Ben Jones and also in the Decatur-DeKalb Bar Association. She is currently studying to obtain an MSW degree. Mrs. Payne serves as a board liaison to the Ethics and Professional Services Committee.

New to the Board, 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. She serves as the Board Liaison to the Education Committee.

New Board Member Trish Maskew serves on the board of Inter-National Adoption Alliance, a national support and advocacy association for those touched by adoption. She has been active in Joint Council for three years. She serves as the board liaison to the new Member Service's Committee, whose goal is to expand and improve the services JCICS offers to its members. Ms. Maskew is the author of" Our Own: Adopting and Parenting the Older Child", and has a special interest in promoting the adoption of older and special needs children. She is the mother of several children by birth, foster care and adoption.

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. She serves as the Board Liaison to the Ethics and Professional Services Committee.

Cynthia Peck is new to the Board of JCICS. She is the Executive Director of Reaching Out Thru International Adoption. 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. Cynthia serves as Board Liaison to the Publicity Committee.

New to the Board, 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. He serves as liaison to the Joint Council Federal Legislation and Hague Committee.

Ms. Wallace, who has previously served as Vice President of the Joint Council Board, is the Founder and Director of Adoptions International, Inc. in Pennsylvania. She has served as a social worker, is a certified family therapist, and has been a counselor at an alternative school for adolescents. She has a particular interest in Guatemala, and has played a major role in developing the Guatemala Caucus. One of her children was adopted from Latin America. She now serves as liaison to all of the country caucuses and the Local Service caucus.

Ms. Zhang continues in this Board position. Born in China, she received her undergraduate training in journalism there, then received her MSW degree in the United States. She has worked in international adoption since 1992, with a particular interest in placement of older and special needs children, and is currently Associate Director for Children's Hope International in Missouri. She was involved in starting the JCICS China Caucus, and has overseen Joint Council's dramatic increase in membership over the past two years. She is Board liaison to the Membership Committee.

, Ex-Officio

Ms. Riley was Vice President of the Board last year. She is the Executive Director of The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Inc. (CASE) in Maryland. She holds a Master's degree in marriage and family therapy. For the first 25 years of her career, she focused on adolescent mental health, treating thousands of teens in outpatient, inpatient, and community mental health settings. Since 1993, she has been involved exclusively in the adoption arena, creating a variety of post-adoption programs, including therapies and educational and support services, in the Washington, DC area. She is a nationally known presenter on adoption and adolescent mental health issues. She also serves on the Research and Practice Committee of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute; the Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth, and Families; and the Montgomery County Operation Runaway Community Coalition.

For more information contact

Joint Council on International Children's Services

1320 Nineteenth Street, N.W.

Suite 200

Washington, DC 20036

Phone: 202-429-0400

Fax: 202-429-0410

jcics@jcics.org