Bastards on the Boardwalk Keynote Speakers and Workshop Presenters Audio Cassette Tapes Available

Keynotes:

Nancy Newton Verrier, MA., CA: Ms. Verrier is an adoptive mother, therapist and the author of the controversial book The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child.

Katarina Wegar, PhD, VA; Finland: Professor Wegar is an adoptee born in Finland, where records are open. She is a professor of Sociology at Virginia and author of Adoption, Identity and Kinship: The Debate over Sealed Birth Records

Workshop Presenters:

Mary Anne Cohen, PA, Birthmother (How Birthmothers Can Support Adoptee Civil Rights) - Mary Anne is a birthmother who surrendered in 1968, active in adoption reform since 1975, Co-Founder and newletter editor of Origins, past American Adoptiohn Congress (AAC) Board member and Education Chair, member of CUB (Concerned United Birthparents) since its inception, Lifetime Member of Bastard Nation (BN). Mary Anne is also a poet and artist, mother of three sons whom I raised, married, BA in art and psychology, and keeper of many cats.

Julie Dennis, WA, Adoptee (T.I.E.S., RegDay and CARE - The Future of Internet Search Activism) - Julie is a reunited adoptee of Native American ancestry. She serves as Bastard Nation's Northwest Regional Director. She is the Founder and Administrator of Reunions Online: a free online adoption reunion registry, and is the Intake Director & Financial Officer of the Terminal Illness Emergency Search program (TIES.). She is also a board member of Washington State Open '99 and runs the Washington State Triad Mailing List. A strong supporter of adoptee rights, Julie is working to put an open records initiative on the ballot in her home state of Washington in 2001.

Charles Filius, CA, Adoptee (Anonymity in the Birthplace) Charles is a professional cartoonist long involved in the adoptee rights movement. This dedicated "Cartoonist With a Cause" is the Graphic Design Subcommittee Chair of BN, Graphics Chair for The Adoption Registration Coalition, and the Publications Director for the TIES Program. Check out his acclaimed adoption related comic strips, Is It Mine?, Doctor Dora and SWAN: An Adoption Adventure.

Marley Greiner, OH, Adoptee (Our Adopted Child Taught Us Family Love: Adoption Narratives In Popular Women's Magazines, 1935-1970) - Marley is the Executive Chair and a co-founder of Bastard Nation, an historian, and pop culture maven. She has presented papers at the last two BN conferences as well as the 1998 AAC Conference in Seattle. Previous workshops included presentations on adoption in film, and the political tactics of the NCFA and other sealed records proponents.

Marie Batrow Heshka, NY, Adoptee (Irish Adoption History, Reform, and Search) - Irish-born adoptee; long-time member of ALMA; co-founder and primary researcher, Searching in Ireland support/reform group.

Helen Hill, OR, Adoptee, (panel on adoptee perception) - Chief Petitioner of Oregon's ground-breaking Measure 58, passed by Oregon voters on November 1998. Helen, a Nehalem Oregon art teacher, spearheaded the drive to put Measure 58 on the ballot, and then tirelessly lobbied adoption agencies and other adoption groups, and the press, and marshalled public opinion by framing the issue in terms of civil rights.

Cynthia Bertrand Holub, PA, Adoptee, (A History of Sealed Records in the US, with Special Emphasis on PA) - Cynthia is a member of the Executive Committee of Bastard Nation and its Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, member of the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission Advisory Committee on Adoption Law, and a past presenter on adoptee rights at several adoption-related conferences.

Maureen Hogan PhD, WDC, Adoptive Mother (Winning the Battle, Winning the War) - Maureen is a mother of five, a lobbyist for AASK (Adopt-a-Special-Kid), and a staunch opponent of government-sanctioned permanent secrecy in adoption.

Mary Hunt, NJ, Adoptee (T.I.E.S., RegDay and CARE- the Future of Internet Search Activism) - T.I.E.S. Program Director; C.A.R.E. Board Member; co-founder of the OASIS: Organization for Adoptees- Search and Individual Support; Bastard Activist and reunited adoptee

David Kirschner PhD, NY, Clinical Psychologist (panel on adoptee perception) - Director of Psychotherapy and Forensic Psychology Center, Expert Witness in court cases of adoptees who kill including Joel Rifkin (NYS serial killer), Jeremy Strohmeyer (Las Vegas Casino killing), Steve Catlin (California serial wife poisoner); and Matt Heikkila (NJ), Pat DeGellke (NY), Pat Campbell (CN), Pat Niiranen (OR) - each of whom killed both adoptive parents. Author of many articles on adoption issues.

Terri Leber, WA, Birthmother (T.I.E.S., RegDay and CARE - The Future of Internet Search Activism) - Terri Leber - long time community activist - turned her attentions to adoption activism during her search for her birthson. Leber is Cofounder of the National Council of Birthmothers, a founding board member of Washington Open 98/99, Regional Director and a Site Coordinator for RegDay, Regional Search Coordinator for T. I. E. S., and one of the organizers of the Washington State Adoption Search Fair. Proving that adoption activist can have fun too - in '97 Leber created the Birthmom Summer Celebration- - an annual event open to all triad members. Leber is part of a Seattle based group of birthmothers who spend many hours maintaining and coordinating ongoing additions to The American Adoption Quilt.

Ron Morgan, CA, Adoptee, (Identity Theft: LDAs and other modalities of family secrecy) - Ron is a member of BN's Executive Committee and a pioneer in defining and studying the Late Discovery Adoptee phenomenon. He has presented on the LDA experience at BN and AAC conferences. Ron is currently working on the California Open 2000 legislative campaign.

John Peret, NJ, Adoptee (Speaking in Public: Practical Tactics in Activism) - Presenter: 1997 AAC Regional Conference, "Who and What is Bastard Nation"; New Jersey State Director for Bastard Nation; Speaker at the "Our Records, Our Rights" Rally in Philadelphia in 1997; 1997 and 1998 New Jersey Reg Day Leader; T.I.E.S. Regional Search Director

Sarah Saffian, NY, Adoptee (Being Found and Multiple Families) - Sarah is a journalist and author of the recently released memoir ITHAKA: A Daughter's Memoir of Being Found in which she recounts her initial reluctance in reconnecting with the birthparents who found her. She has appeared on television and radio advocating adoptee rights as a civil rights issue.

Mari Steed, PA, Adoptee/Birthmother (Irish Adoption History, Reform, and Search) - Mari is an Irish-born adoptee and birthmother, former member of AAC, PA State Director, Bastard Nation; Co-founder, Searching in Ireland support/reform group; ancilliary member, Adopted Persons Association (APA) of Ireland.

Marlena Villers, TX, Adoptee (The Democratic Process: Saul Alinsky & His Legacy) - Marlena is a video/film producer & Managing Director of the Video Association of Dallas; C.A.R.E. Board Member; searcher for Volunteer Search Network; Former AAC State Representative for West Virginia; former administrator of West Virginia Reunion Registry; led statewide training in adoption reunion issues for West Virginia Department of Health & Human Resources social workers; past presenter at the annual "Mining Your History" conference of West Virginia genealogists.

Albert S. Wei, London, UK, Adoptee (Open Records: Laying the Foundation Through Human Rights) - Albert S. Wei is an adoptee from California and a member of Bastard Nation's Education & Training and Fiscal Development Committees. Al is a Director of Investment Banking at a Wall Street securities firm. He has degrees in urban studies and public policy from Columbia University in New York City and his adoption-related interests centre around rights and ethics considerations in the regulation and management of adoption. Al presently resides in London, England and he has lived previously in Southeast Asia and the U.S.