Faculty for the Institutes includes prominent leaders in the adoption field from the Children’s Bureau, universities, public and private adoption agencies, legal/judicial organizations, and national advocacy organizations.

Ruth McRoy, PhD
Ruth McRoy is the Director of the Center for Social Work Research and is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, she holds the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professorship in Services to Children and Families.  A preeminent practitioner, researcher, and lecturer in the field of adoption for over 20 years, her professional interests include family preservation, open adoptions, adoption outcomes, transracial adoptions, racial identity issues and post-adoption services.  Among her influential adoption-related research projects are, “Longitudinal Outcomes of Openness in Adoption (1997-2001),” “Changing Adoption Agency Practices:  Mental Health Implications for Birth parents, Adoptive Parents, and Adopted Children (1999-2000),” and “Evaluation Study of Post Adoption Services (1994-1996).”  She has written seven books, including:  Special Needs Adoptions: Practice Issues and Openness in Adoption:  Family Connections (with H. Grotevant), and numerous articles and book chapters on adoption.

Oronde Miller, MS
Oronde Miller has worked on behalf of African American children and families in various capacities since 1993.  His educational and professional experience includes a broad focus on child development, education, and socialization, with a particular focus on the cultural and social forces impacting African American child and family functioning in the United States.  Mr. Miller received his master’s of science degree in developmental psychology with a dual concentration in social and educational psychology and his bachelor of arts in elementary education from Howard University in Washington, DC.  He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in developmental psychology at Howard University and manager at Casey Family Programs in Washington, DC, and is primarily responsible for coordinating a national child welfare system reform effort focusing on disproportionality.  He continues to operate the Institute for Family and Child Well-Being during his spare time.  This Institute and the on-line resource repository are completely independent of Mr. Miller’s work at Casey Family Programs.  Mr. Miller is the second of two sons born to a couple in a rural town in north central Ohio.  When only a few months old, Mr. Miller and his brother were both placed in the public foster care system.  Before being placed with their permanent adoptive family in Detroit, Michigan, they had experienced multiple placements in foster care, as well as one disrupted adoptive placement.  At one point, Mr. Miller and his brother were briefly separated during an emergency foster placement in Michigan. Their final adoptive placement in 1973 in Detroit was arranged and finalized through Homes for Black Children, at the time the first and only African American adoption agency in the country.  Mr. Miller’s primary interests include processes of child development and socialization, processes of schooling and education, family dynamics, and traditional African conceptions of character development during childhood.  He has served as a consultant for numerous educational and child welfare organizations throughout the United States.  He has also spoken before dozens of audiences throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and South Africa.

Terry Moore, MSW
Terry Moore has managed numerous child welfare training and research projects for the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare since 1992.  Mr. Moore has held several management positions in public and private agencies over the last 20 plus years with six years of direct practice in child welfare.  He holds a master’s of social work from the University of Kansas with a concentration in social work administration.  He has taught graduate courses in information management and personnel management.  In the last several years, Mr. Moore has specialized in performance measurement, management reporting, and the use of data in management decision making.  Previously, he worked with Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services to develop and implement a child welfare outcomes measurement system, and to develop the Kansas Initiative for Decision Support that designed and implemented safety and risk assessment tools to aid in case decision making.

Tawara Goode, MA
Tawara Goode is an instructor for the Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC.  She has been on the faculty of the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD) for the past 27 years.  She has degrees in early childhood, special education, and human development.  Ms. Goode is Director of the National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) at GUCCHD, the mission of which is to increase the capacity of health care and mental health programs to design, implement, and evaluate culturally and linguistically competent service delivery systems.  Ms. Goode has been actively involved in the development and implementation of programs and initiatives in the area of cultural and linguistic competence at local, national, and international levels.  As Associate Director for Community Planning of GUCCHD, Ms. Goode is responsible for short-term and ongoing programs for individuals at risk for and with developmental and other disabilities and their families.  Ms. Goode’s duties include program development, administration, and teaching within the University and in the community.  Ms. Goode also has administrative responsibility for the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service at GUCCHD, funded by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dennette M. Derezotes, MSW, LCSW
Dennette M. Derezotes, MSW, LCSW has over 20 years of child welfare experience working with children and families in direct care, therapeutic services, administration, training, program development and evaluation, community advocacy and collaboration, and agency consultation. She is the founding Executive Director of the Race Matters Consortium at Westat, a national multi-system initiative that promotes strategies that prevent, intervene, and eliminate adverse racial disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system.  Its members comprise a national think tank of concerned experts in research, social work practice, public policy, and philanthropy who critically examine the issues related to racial and ethnic disparities and influence policy and practice through education and consultation.  Ms. Derezotes currently travels the country addressing issues of racial disproportionality to numerous audiences.  She is an author of and first editor of the book, Race Matters in Child Welfare:  Examining the Overrepresentation of African Americans in the Child Welfare System, published through the Child Welfare League of America in March 2005.

Download PowerPoint Presentation: Race Matters

James S. Jackson, PhD
James S. Jackson is Professor and Director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Jackson is also Director of the Program for Research on Black Americans and Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Social Research.  Dr. Jackson’s research interests include experimental and survey methodology, cultural influences on mental health, social influence, attitude theory and change, aging and human development.  Dr. Jackson directs the National Survey of American Life, a survey funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that is designed to document the physical, emotional, mental, structural, and economic conditions of African Americans at the beginning of the new century.  Recent publications include “African Americans in a Diversifying Nation,” “Health in Black America,” and “Being black and feeling blue: the mental health consequences of racial discrimination.”  Dr. Jackson also serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute on Aging.

James L. Mason, PhD
Dr. Mason is the Director of the Office of Multicultural Health for the Oregon Department of Human Services.  He is the former Multicultural Development Officer at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon.  He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Portland State University since 1976 in the Graduate School of Social Work, the School of Urban and Public Affairs, and the University Studies Program.  Dr. Mason is a Senior Project Consultant for the Georgetown University Child Development Center’s National Center on Cultural Competence.   Dr. Mason was an original member of the Georgetown University Multicultural Resource Committee that worked to develop and disseminate the CASSP cultural competence model.  He has applied the cultural competence concept to a variety of service disciplines including public health, mental health, education, child welfare, maternal and child health, and alcohol and drug treatment.  Dr. Mason has been involved in service delivery research since 1984 including directing two national research projects focusing on improving services to culturally diverse communities. He has spoken to, consulted with, and provided assessment and training services to a variety of agencies and bureaucracies across the country.  He has lived and worked in Portland, Oregon, since 1975. 

Download PowerPoint Presenatation: Preparing for Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities in Child Welfare

Sharen E. Ford, PhD
For more than 17 years, Dr. Ford has been involved in child welfare services in the state of Colorado.  Her areas of expertise include special needs adoption, concurrent planning, adolescent issues, adoption medical assistance and mental health issues.  She currently serves as Manager of the Permanency Services Unit for the Colorado Department of Human Services.  In addition to serving as the legislative lead for the Office of Family and Children’s Services, Dr. Ford has a great deal of experience in the areas of administration, fiscal development, program and policy development, and adoption training programs.

Peter Dahlin, MS
Peter Dahlin, MS, is a private consultant, based out of the San Francisco area, providing organizational development, training, and curriculum development services to a variety of organizations throughout the country.  He is passionate about integrating creativity and fun in solving organizational challenges.  He has created and taught supervisor, manager, and trainer courses and is a regularly invited presenter to regional and national conferences. Most recently, he served as the 2005 Chair for the 15th Annual West Coast Child Welfare Trainer’s Conference held in Portland, Oregon.  Among his clients are the State of Washington, San Francisco Municipal Railway, UCLA, State of Florida, State of New Mexico, Ventura County, Alameda County Superior Court, Frontiers Health System, and several campuses in the California State University system. Mr. Dahlin has also helped to develop mentoring programs in the State of Washington as well as the National Child Welfare Resource Center on Adoption, where he serves as a consultant.  His style is energetic and engaging, and he infuses appropriate issues of cultural diversity and strong “transfer of learning” opportunities.  He regularly works with a select group of associates who maintain expertise in mental health, child welfare, training and administration.
Mr. Dahlin is the Director of Grants and Contracts at California State University, Hayward’s Continuing and International Education Division, developing new professional development programs for government agencies, small non-profit agencies as well as private corporations. Additionally, he serves as the Training Director for the San Francisco East Bay’s Small Business Development Center and is the former Director of a regional training academy providing training, consultation, and organizational development services to 12 counties in the San Francisco Bay area.  He has over 15 years of direct service, supervision, training and management experience in public social services.

Mary D. Garrison, LCSW

Mary D. Garrison has a master’s of science in social work from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.  She is also a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Tennessee.  Ms. Garrison is an experienced clinician, supervisor, administrator, and trainer.  She has over 10 years experience as a manager and over 20 years in the field.  She has been responsible for a staff of over 100 people while managing budgets totaling over $3,000,000.  In University appointments, she has assessed, designed, and evaluated training needs and wide-ranging programs.   Additionally, she completed a comprehensive study with several Bay Area counties regarding recruitment and retention issues of staff.  Ms. Garrison has been responsible for training staff and ensuring risk management and quality assurance activities in multiple programs.  She is an experienced monitor and reviewer for various organizations.  Ms. Garrison has developed trainings and curricula for topics by organization’s request.  She has provided multiple trainings to a wide variety of professionals and paraprofessionals.  Ms. Garrison has been an invited trainer at regional and national conferences for the past seven years.  She has been training on various topics for over 10 years.  She is the sole proprietor of Garrison & Associates OD Consultants providing technical assistance as well as organizational development services to organizations in the states of Tennessee, Florida, California, Texas, New Mexico, and Washington in social services, medical and mental health fields.

Bradley Yarbrough, BS
Mr. Yarbrough obtained a degree in business administration from Southern Nazarene University where he graduated Cum Laude and received the Outstanding Business Student Award.  Since graduation, he has founded three successful businesses and, at the age of 27, took one of them public while serving as its Chairman and CEO.  He now devotes some time as a consultant to business owners and conducts management seminars for major corporations.  In addition to his distinguished business career, Mr. Yarbrough is an ordained minister and pastored an Oklahoma City congregation for 10 years.  While pastoring, he helped open Hannah Houses, homes for women in crisis, in several U.S. cities.  Chosen to serve as Clergy Coordinator at the Family Assistance Center after the bombing of the Oklahoma City Murrah Building, he ministered to victim’s families and survivors. Since that time he has assisted SAMHSA, the American Red Cross and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in efforts to coordinate spiritual care to victims of recent national tragedies.  As a community leader, he directed relief efforts locally following the May 1999 tornadoes for Heart to Heart International.  In association with Mayor Kirk Humphreys, he is a founding board member of the Christian Leadership Foundation of Oklahoma City.  Mr. Yarbrough serves as Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.  It was established in July 2000 by the Cabinet Secretary of Health and Human Services to promote private/public partnerships between state agencies and community organizations, especially faith-based groups.  His relationship with Oklahoma’s faith leaders and government officials, combined with his management abilities, have provided a unique opportunity to establish Oklahoma as a national leader in this initiative. 

Judge Stephen W. Rideout (retired)
Judge Rideout is the former Lead Judge of the Alexandria Model Court Project in Alexandria, Virginia, the winner of a 2003 Health and Human Adoption Excellence Award, and a 2004 CASA Judge of the Year.  He is a judicial resource on ICPC and on court, agency, and community collaboration regarding juvenile and family court issues.

Jennifer Renne, JD
Ms. Renne is an Assistant Director of Child Welfare for the National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues.  She brings the child representation perspective to this Resource Center through her eight years experience as an attorney for Maryland’s Legal Aid Bureau.  She was a staff attorney for five years, and supervising attorney of the Child Advocacy Unit for three years.  She also is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Ms. Renne received a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991 and her bacherlor’s of arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988.

Download PowerPoint Presentation: Permanency and the Courts

Carol W. Spigner, DSW
Carol W. Spigner, DSW joined the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work faculty in July 1999 as a visiting professor and joined the faculty permanently in September 2000.  Prior to her arrival at the University, Dr. Spigner had been the Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) as Associate Commissioner.  Dr. Spigner was responsible for the administration of federal child welfare programs.  Dr. Spigner has received numerous awards including the University of Southern California’s Lifetime Contributor to the Development of Policies and Programs for Underserved Populations Award, the National Association of Black Social Workers’; Outstanding Contributors Award, and the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators’ Leadership in Public Child Welfare Award.  Dr. Spigner has also served as a Senior Associate at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Washington, DC and as the Director of the National Child Welfare Leadership Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Dr. Spigner held professorships at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California, Los Angeles.  Dr. Spigner has published a variety of articles in the areas of cultural competency, permanency planning and relative care.  Dr. Spigner began her career working for the Los Angeles County Departments of Adoption and Probation.  A native of Los Angeles, Dr. Spigner received her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Riverside and her graduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of Southern California.

Download PowerPoint Presentation: Leadership in Adoption

Mattie L. Satterfield, MSW, LCSW-C
Mattie L. Satterfield is the Assistant Director of Child and Family Services which includes the Juvenile Detention Center for the city of Norfolk Department of Human Services.   As Assistant Director, Mrs. Satterfield provides leadership in the advancement of program and practice knowledge in all child and family services with a particular focus on family centered practice.  Her role encompasses policy and procedures, legislative involvement, court and community collaborations.  Prior to her current position, Mrs. Satterfield was the Director of Kinship Care Services for the Child Welfare League of America.  She provided national and international leadership in the advancement of program and practice knowledge in the area of kinship care services.  Mrs. Satterfield continues to provide consultation to national, state, and local policy makers, providers, and caregiver organizations on kinship care policy, programs and practice.  Mrs. Satterfield has over 25 years of service in the area of public and private child welfare services.   She has been a direct service social worker, and provided direct supervision for social workers in child protective services, foster care, adoptions and family services.  Mrs. Satterfield held the positions of Director of Kinship Care, Foster Care and Adoption for Tennessee Department of Children Services, Office of Child Permanency, and also held the position of Acting Program Manager for Family Services with the Social Services Administration under Maryland Department of Human Resources both on the state level.  With both of these positions, she was responsible for the oversight and statewide management of the following programs, Kinship Care, Foster Care, Adoptions, Intensive Family Services, Family Now, and Services to Families with Children. Mrs. Satterfield also administered the budgets for these programs.  Mrs. Satterfield holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Morgan State University and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland School of Social Work and Community Planning.  She is a licensed clinical social worker.

Download Power Point Presentation: Facilitating Successful Kinship Adoptions