Past East Meets West's Speaker Bios

Dr. Jane Aronson

Dr. Jane Aronson is a board certified general pediatrician and pediatric infectious diseases specialist with a faculty appointment at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University as Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics.

She has been working as an international adoption medicine specialist for the past eight years and evaluates over 300 newly adopted children from abroad each year. She is part of a national network of adoption medicine specialists who have recently become an official section of the American Academy of Pediatrics called the Provisional Section on Adoption.

Dr. Aronson speaks and writes about international adoption for family adoption groups, adoption agencies, and physicians. As an adoption medicine specialist, she reviews pre-adoption medical reports and photographs.

In addition to having her own practice as an adoption medicine specialist, pediatrician, and infectious diseases specialist, Dr. Aronson is an adoptive parent.

Peggy Baird

Peggy L. Baird, LCSW, has been the Director of the Adoption Program at Families First since 1989. From 1986 to 1989 she served as the Social Work Supervisor for Families First Pregnancy and Adoption Program. She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. in 1978 with her MSW. Ms. Baird's social work background includes supervising residential youth service programs, pregnancy prevention /pregnancy and parenting programs and various adoption programs. Ms. Baird has worked for private social service agencies in both Texas and North Carolina. She has played an active role in providing direct services to all members of the adoption triad. She has taught numerous workshops on adoption issues and been a strong advocate for professional and legislative change in the field. She served as the President of the Georgia Association of Licensed Adoption Agencies in 1993 and again in 2002.

Karen Campbell

Karen J. Campbell, M.N., R.N., C.S., P.N.P., has worked as a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner since 1991. After graduating from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing, she worked in pediatrics and pediatric intensive care before beginning her postgraduate studies at Emory University. While at Emory, she completed her training as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and earned a Master of Nursing degree in Child Health. She is now a clinical instructor for the Emory University Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program. Karen has a special interest in international adoption and adoption-related health issues, and she uses her personal experience as an adoptive parent and her professional knowledge as an adoption consultant to assist families born through adoption. She has served as a board member for the Families with Children from China organization in the Atlanta area and remains active in that organization.

Cindy Champnella

In addition to her "day job" as Executive Director of Human Resources for Schoolcraft College, Cindy Champnella has worked for the past several years to support international adoption in a variety of different manners. She has worked as a volunteer in recruiting and assisting families with their adoption efforts and as an adoption social worker in the state of Michigan advising and counseling families and performing home studies and post-placement visits.

Cindy has two master's degrees, one in the area of psychology, and is currently pursing her Ph. D. in psychology with older post-institutionalized international adoptees as her dissertation research area.

Cindy is also the author of "The Waiting Child: How the Faith and Love of One Orphan Saved the Life of Another" and has had features published in numerous publications including Ladies Home Journal. She is a regular columnist for Adoption Today magazine and The Detroit News. She is an acclaimed speaker who has presented to numerous civic, community and religious groups all over the United States and has appeared on several TV programs including NBC's "The John Walsh Show", dozens of nationally syndicated radio programs including "The Mitch Albom Show", "The Al Kresta Show" and the internationally syndicated "Voice of America".

Cindy has six children, three grown step-children, a biological daughter, and two daughters adopted from China; one as an infant and one that was adopted at the age of 4. She also has four grandchildren.

Dr. Pi-Nian Chang

Dr. Pi-Nian Chang joined the Department of Pediatrics' faculty in 1974 at the Univ. Of Minnesota Hospital and is currently the Director of Pediatric Psychology. He is a native of China, who came to the United States for graduate study in 1965. His professional interests lie in the study of how environmental, genetic and medical factors affect the developmental outcomes of infants, children and teens. He has become more involved with the International Adoption Clinic in the past several years. Dr. Chang has conducted detailed intellectual, learning, behavioral/emotional studies of children who are internationally adopted.

Kathryn (Kay) Dole

Kay Dole is the Director of Neurodevelopment Services and is one of the original founders of the International Clinic, along with Dana Johnson and Sandra Iverson. She regularly sees patients in clinic and is available to review medical materials for the pre-adoption evaluation consultation process. In addition, Kay is the lead therapist for the Minneapolis Public Schools, a large urban district with a diverse population serving over 50,000 children who speak more than 80 different languages. Kay has extensive experience working with children with developmental and physical disabilities in medical rehabilitation. Her unique expertise in education is invaluable for families with internationally adopted children.

Dr. Alan Dupre-Clark

Dr. Alan Dupre-Clark, D.Min. is a practicing post-adoption counseling specialist with a specialization with attachment problems and adoption issues for the last 15 years. He is a licensed professional clinical counselor, independent marriage and family therapist and clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy.

Currently, he is clinical director of the Charting the Course Post-Adoption Program of Parenthesis Family Advocates in Columbus, Ohio. Alan is also a contributing author to the book, "Wasn't Love Supposed to be Enough?" and a pyscho-education manual, "Charting the Course," for adoptive parents widely used in the field. In addition, he has many years of experience as a workshop presenter and trainer. His counseling practice is composed of children adopted domestically and internationally. His counseling program is also involved with a research project with Ohio State University to prove that the difficulties adopted children have improve with the treatment methodology he has developed.

Dr. Wendy Hanevold

Wendy Haus Hanevold is a licensed clinical psychologist who focuses on working with children, adolescents and families. She specializes in working with children and adolescents who are undergoing major life transitions (foster care placement, Kinship care, adoption, divorce and step-families). Her interests revolve around building positive and healthy attachments, acceptance of grief and loss issues, and helping children and families bloom where they are planted.

Dr. Hanevold teaches and trains parents how to manage challenging behaviors and engage in therapeutic parenting activities. She provides treatment and competency based assessments.
Dr. Hanevold is a Registered Play Therapist and Play Therapist Supervisor. She is also a clinical member and approved supervisor of the American Association of Marital and Family Therapist. Dr. Hanevold is a consultant and trainer with the Division of Family and Children's services and she provides assessment and therapy services at her offices in Atlanta.

Robert Katz

Robert N. Katz is President of Families with Children from China, Atlanta Chapter and is the liaison for the Adoption Education Committee. Mr. Katz and his wife, Kathleen Kelly, adopted a son from Hubei province in April 2003. In addition, Mr. Katz and Ms. Kelly are in the process of again adopting from China and anticipate traveling to China sometime late summer 2006. Mr. Katz is a practicing attorney in Atlanta, Georgia and is former president of the DeKalb Bar Association.

Mr. Jin Bao Li: Chinese Orphanage Director of the Da Tong Social Welfare Institute in Shan Xi Province;

In a very rare opportunity EMW was proud to provide the opportunity to get up close and personal with a key authority in the Chinese adoption process. Mr. Jin Bao Li, the director of the Da Tong Social Welfare Institute in the Shan Xi Province, offered a glimpse into the life of an orphan as he described and answered questions about his welfare institute. The experience of hearing the unbiased perspective in his own words was amazing. Whenever we have the privilege of hosting a director, they always seem to surprise us with their candidness and their willingness to share their genuine feelings of love and responsibility for these children. The directors have a particularly interesting outlook in regards to the ongoing relationship between China and Americans as it applies to International adoption.

Tim Malloy

Tim joined McDonald Investments and KeyCorp in July 2000. Previously, he was a manager and tax advisor with a Big Five accounting firm in its Family Wealth Planning Group, where he developed and implemented estate and succession planning techniques for high net worth clients. With over 12 years experience in trust and estate planning, Tim specializes in estate, gift and generation skipping transfer taxation. He works extensively in strategies involving grantor trusts, valuation discounts and the leveraging of available exclusions. As Manager of the Estate Planning Services Delivery Team, Tim is responsible for the preparation and delivery of customized estate plans for affluent clients.

Tim is an attorney with his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. (cum laude) from the University of Notre Dame. He is an adjunct faculty member at Kent State University, and he is involved in a number of non-profit organizations, including the Victim Assistance Program of Summit County, an organization which provides counseling and support services to victims of crime.

Adam Pertman

Adam Pertman is the Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, the pre-eminent research, policy and education organization in its field. Pertman is also the author of the groundbreaking Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America, which was named Book of the Year by the National Adoption Foundation soon after its publication and which has been reviewed as "the most important book ever written on the subject". In addition, he is the author of many chapters and articles on adoption- and family-related issues in scholarly as well as mass-market publications.

Pertman's commentaries on families and children have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Miami Herald and on National Public Radio, among others.
He and his wife, Judy Baumwoll, live in Massachusetts with their two children (both adopted): Zachary, 11, and Emilia, 8.

Dr. Dwight Powell

Dr. Powell is a Professor of Pediatrics at Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health and the Director of the Children's Hospital International Adoption Clinic in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Powell received his M.D. from the University of Illinois and his Fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Disease from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Powell has won many awards throughout his career and most recently he received the Children's Hospital Career Achievement Award, 2004.

Cheri Register Cheri Register often tells people her University of Chicago Ph.D. really stands for "Packinghouse Daughter." The opening chapter of Packinghouse Daughter was cited as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 1996. Other excerpts have appeared in Hungry Mind Review, University of Chicago Magazine, and the book Is Academic Feminism Dead? Her work on this memoir has earned a Jerome Travel and Study Grant, a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, and grants from the Loft Literary Center and the Minnesota Historical Society. Her other books include The Chronic Illness Experience: Embracing the Imperfect Life (formerly titled Living with Chronic Illness: Days of Patience and Passion) and "Are Those Kids Yours?": American Families with Children Adopted from Other Countries. She has published many essays in magazines, literary journals, and anthologies, and is known for her early work in feminist literary criticism and Scandinavian literature. A writer of creative nonfiction, Register now teaches writing at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, where she also lives.

Dr. Morris Saldov

Dr. Morris Saldov received his Masters in Social Work in 1976 and his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of Toronto. He is currently an Associate Professor of Social Work in International and Community Development at Monmouth University and been since 1998. He worked in Vancouver Canada on Children's Mental Health from 1969 to 1976, taught at Memorial University of Newfoundland School of Social Work from 1985 to 1995, at the University of Hawaii from 1995 to 1998. He has been an Adjunct Professor with Hawaii Pacific University every summer since 1998. Research and publications have been related to the fields of Child Welfare and Ethno Gerontology which are now focused on Intergenerational Issues and Child Welfare in China, more specifically International Adoptions to the U.S. from China and Grandparent Care of Orphans in China.