Meet the Rudd Adoption Research Program Advisory Board

The Rudd Adoption Research Program Advisory Board includes ten internationally-recognized scholars with great depth in contributions to adoption research and its application to practice and policy. Members of the advisory board hail from the US, UK, Spain, and the Netherlands, and have broad and deep expertise spanning diverse aspects of adoption. The group is a critically important sounding board, providing input about current programs, programs being considered for the future, how we communicate with constituents, the annual conference, and other programmatic work. 

	Amanda L. Baden, Ph.D. Amanda Baden is Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling and Educational Leadership at Montclair State University, New Jersey. Her research and clinical practice are focused on adoption triad members, transracial/international adoption issues, racial and cultural identity, and multicultural counseling competence. Dr. Baden co-created the Cultural-Racial Identity Model for transracial and international adoptees. She co-edited the Handbook of Adoption: Implications for Researchers, Practitioners, and Families (Sage, 2007) and serves on the editorial board for Adoption Quarterly. She also co-chairs the Biennial Adoption Initiative Conferences held at St. John’s University, New York City. Dr. Baden was named an Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption and is a Senior Research Fellow of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.
	Dana E. Johnson, M.D., Ph.D. Dana Johnson is a Professor of Pediatrics and member of the Divisions of Neonatology and Global Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he co-founded the International Adoption Program in 1986. His research interests include the effects of early institutionalization on growth and development and the outcomes of internationally adopted children. Dr. Johnson is an invited speaker worldwide, a Senior Research Fellow in the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, serves on the editorial boards of Adoption Quarterly and Adoptive Families Magazine and has authored over 200 scholarly works. He received the Distinguished Service Award from Joint Council for International Children’s Services, Friend of Children Award from the North American Council on Adoptable Children and the Harry Holt Award from Holt International. He serves on the boards of directors of Joint Council on International Children’s Services, Half The Sky Foundation and SPOON Foundation.
	Femmie Juffer, Ph.D. Femmie Juffer is Professor of Adoption Studies at the Centre for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands. She was the first person to hold the Chair on Adoption Studies, which was established at Leiden University, Centre for Child and Family Studies, in 2000 by Wereldkinderen (Worldchildren), The Hague.  Her research interests include international adoption and foster care, parental sensitivity and attachment in adoptive families, attachment-based interventions, adopted children’s development, and child rearing in institutions. Dr. Juffer received the Casimir Award in 2005 for excellence in teaching in the Faculty of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Leiden University and the Piet Vroon Award in 2004 for research into practice.  She is a member of the Editorial Board of Adoption Quarterly, Adoptietijdschrift, and Mobiel, tijdschrift voor Pleegzorg. She co-edited Promoting Positive Parenting: An Attachment-Based Intervention (Erlbaum, 2008) and co-directs the Adoption Meta-Analysis Project at Leiden University. She hosted the Third International Conference on Adoption Research in 2010.
	Ruth G. McRoy, Ph.D. Ruth G. McRoy is the Donahue and DiFelice Endowed Professor at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work as well as Research Professor and the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professor Emerita at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work.  A practitioner, academician, researcher, trainer and lecturer in the field for over 30 years, her work has focused on such topics as open adoptions, kinship care, adoptive family recruitment, minority recruitment, racial identity development, transracial adoptions, family preservation, adolescent pregnancy, African American families, family violence, disproportionality in child welfare, older child adoptions, and post-adoption services. Recent honors include the 2004 Flynn Prize for Social Work Research from the University of Southern California, the 2005 George Silcott Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Administrators in Child Welfare, the 2006 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research and the 2006-2007 University of Texas at Austin Graduate School’s Outstanding Alumna Award. In 2010 she was selected as a fellow in the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and also was named the recipient of the St. John’s 2010 Outstanding Scholar in Adoption Award.
	Cynthia Monahon, Psy.D. Cynthia Monahon is the Founding Director of the Cutchins Children's Clinic in Northampton, Massachusetts. The mission of the Clinic is to match the best trained and most experienced clinicians with the children and families most in need.  Dr. Monahon received her Psy.D. from the University of Denver, and is the author of  Children and Trauma; a Parent's Guide to Helping Children Heal (Jossey Bass, 1993).  Dr. Monahon has lectured frequently on childhood trauma, models of intervention with parents of traumatized children, and child psychotherapy.  She has taught at the Smith College School for Social Work and at the Antioch New England doctoral psychology program.  Dr. Monahon has a long history of building multi-disciplinary teams to address the needs of abuse victims in western Massachusetts and is the child mental health consultant for the Northwest District Attorney's office.
	Elsbeth Neil, Ph.D. Elsbeth Neil is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Dr. Neil has been undertaking research in the field of adoption for 16 years. She has conducted a longitudinal study, following young children placed for adoption and studying the impact of birth family contact on these children and their birth and adoptive parents. In 2012 she will begin a follow up of this sample, the adopted young people now being in late adolescence/early adulthood. She has also recently completed two studies funded as part of the UK government's Adoption Research Initiative: the 'Helping Birth Families' study has examined support services for birth relatives of children adopted from care, and the 'Supporting Direct Contact' study has looked at how adoption agencies support face-to-face contact arrangements between adoptive children and their birth relatives. Both of these studies have recently been published by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). She has also published a number of journal articles about her research and has edited two collections of adoption research (E. Neil and D. Howe, 2004,  Contact in Adoption and Permanent Foster Care  published by BAAF; and G. Wrobel and E. Neil, International Advances in Adoption Research for Practice, published by Wiley in 2009). In 2006 she organised and chaired the Second International Conference on Adoption Research, held at UEA.
	Melinda Novak, Ph.D. Melinda Novak is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and serves ex officio on the Advisory Board. She established the UMass Primate Laboratory, a small primate facility in which students receive training in handling and managing captive primates, performing behavioral and health assessments, and conducting research.  Dr. Novak is Head of the Behavioral Primatology Unit at the New England Primate Research Center at Harvard Medical School where she conducts her federally funded research on the causes of and treatment for abnormal behavior in primates. She regularly reviews primate facilities and provides advice and guidance on psychological well-being programs.  Dr. Novak has over 100 publications related to behavioral development in rodents and primates.  At the University level, she is a past recipient of the College Outstanding Teacher Award, the Distinguished Faculty UMass Alumni Association Award, and a recent recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, the highest honor bestowed on faculty for exemplary research and service contributions.
	Jesús Palacios, Ph.D. Jesús Palacios is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Seville, Spain. He has conducted research on both domestic and international adoption in Spain, especially focusing on issues of parent-child relationships and parenting stress. He has published numerous books and articles on foster care and adoption, including  Psychological Issues in Adoption: Research and Practice, co-edited with David Brodzinsky (Praeger, 2005). He has also co-authored a preadoption training program for prospective adopters as well as a book for adoptive parents (Adelante con la adopción [Ahead with Adoption]). He consults regularly with governmental agencies about how to improve systems of foster care and adoption on behalf of children, and he has played a leadership role in connecting adoption researchers around the world. He is hosting the Fourth International Conference on Adoption Research in Spain in 2013.
	Sally Powers, Ed.D. Sally Powers is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Director of the Center for Research on Families, and Associate Dean for Faculty Development in the College of Natural Sciences. Dr. Powers’ research investigates psychosocial risk factors (particularly adolescent and family-related social and behavioral stressors) and biological risk factors (endocrine dysregulation) that influence gender differences in the longitudinal course of depression and anxiety.   Her research has been funded by NSF, NIMH, NICHD, and the William T. Grant Foundation, and is currently funded by the National Cancer Institute. At UMass, Dr. Powers has been awarded a Conti Faculty Fellowship for outstanding research, and the Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Faculty Lecturer. She recently served as a member of the Committee on the Science of Family Research of the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine.
	David Scherer, Ph.D. David Scherer is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of Clinical Training at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia in 1989 and has been on the Psychology faculty at UMass Amherst since 2005. Dr. Scherer's research has focused on the ethics and process of adolescent and family decision-making in medical and research contexts. He also has conducted research on and published about psychotherapy for troubled adolescents and their families. In addition, he supervises clinical students wishing to gain expertise in working with children, adolescents, and families.