John Bennett, ORPARC Resource Coordinator
Prior to becoming a Family Support Specialist at the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center, John taught for 15 years in public schools in Everett Washington, including 7-½ years in a special school for juvenile offenders.

Momi Buren, MSW, ORPARC Family Support Specialist
Momi joined ORPARC with 8 years' experience working with children and families in adoptions and the foster care system. She has worked in all aspects of the adoption process from initial placement to ongoing supportive services and finalization. She is also an experienced trainer for foster and adoptive families with particular expertise in the de-escalation and managing of crisis situations.

Lynette Burke, Occupational Therapist
Lynette Burke is a Registered Occupational Therapist who is a nationally recognized expert in the field of Sensory Integration. For the last 18 years, she has provided therapy services to children ages birth to 18 years in addition to providing educational presentations.

Lisa Cena, Occupational Therapist, St. Charles Medical Center
Lisa Cena has been working at St. Charles Medical Center as an Occupational Therapist treating adults and pediatrics since August 2000. She completed the certification process for administration and interpretation of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Test with the comprehensive program in sensory integration December 2004. Lisa graduated with a Master's degree in occupational therapy from the University of Puget Sound December 1999.

Astrid Dabbeni, Executive Director, Adoption Mosaic
Astrid has a degree in sociology with an emphasis in adoption. She travels the country to lead youth groups, present workshops on transracial parenting, talking with children about adoption and various other workshops focusing on adoption. Astrid has worked in adoptions for over 14 years. Her life-long interest in adoption is rooted in her own adoption at the age of four with her older sister from Colombia. Astrid is the Executive Director and co-founder of Adoption Mosaic (www.adoptionmosaic.org).

Kelly DeLany, MA, LMFT, ORPARC Program Manager
Kelly is newly appointed Program Manager of the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center where for the past two years she has coordinated the Therapy with Adoptive Families Postgraduate Certificate Program. She has over twelve years experience serving children and families in mental health and counseling. The last seven years she exclusively worked with children and families in foster care and adoption as a founding therapist of Kinship House. Kelly has also taught college courses in psychology and group counseling. She has a 40-hour training certificate in stress management consulting and completed an undergraduate internship in stress management.

Erica Finstad, Ph.D.
Erica Finstad is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who works with drug-using youth and their families at the Center for Family and Adolescent Research (CFAR). She specializes in working with treatment-resistant teens and helping their parents engage them in treatment.

Toni Ferguson, MSW, ORPARC Family Support Specialist
Prior to joining ORPARC, Toni worked at Portland State University’s Graduate School of Social Work and Child Welfare Partnership. She was instrumental in starting the Post Graduate Certificate Program in Therapy with Adoptive and Foster Families. Toni was also a member of the innovative Post Adoption Family therapist Team (PAFT) at DHS, where she provided highly specialized, intensive treatment services to adoptive families of special needs children. She has also worked as a school social worker for the Walla Walla School District.

Deborah Gray, MSW, MPA
Deborah Gray specializes in attachment, grief, and trauma. She has counseled foster and adopted children for the last 15 years. Her private practice philosophy is one of empowering parents with information and techniques so that their skills and styles are used in meeting the needs of their children. She is the author of numerous articles and the books, Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents and Nurturing Adoptions: Creating Resilience after Neglect and Trauma.

Hillary Hyde, MSW
Hillary is a social worker with more than 15 years experience working with families. She teaches the mandated classes for divorcing parents in the Portland metro area, has completed divorce mediation training at Clackamas County Family Court Services, and has worked as a custody evaluator in a private practice. She is a bookseller with blogs including books on divorce and blended families. She holds a Masters degree in Social Work from Portland State University, and a B.S. in Psychology from Colorado State University. Hillary also has specialized clinical training and experience in working with families who have children with disabilities or developmental delays. She trained at the Mailman Center for Child Development in Miami, Florida and worked in the Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education program in the Portland area for four years. In addition to her professional experience, Hillary brings personal experience to her work. She grew up in a divorced family and is part of several stepfamilies. Hillary is the mother of one and the stepmother of one. She is a solo parent and widow. Like divorced parents, her experiences have brought unexpected changes, loss of dreams, and concern for the impact of these life events on her children. As a result, she has great compassion for all parties involved.

Pam Lewis
Pam Lewis is an experienced parent of two biological daughters, four adopted daughters and four adopted sons (age range from 11 to 29 years old). She has a passion for sharing her parenting insights and tips with other families that are interested in providing a healthy foundation for their children, and coming away with a "guilt free" parenting attitude. Pam and her entire family spent 5 years under the training of a Post-Placement Adoption Attachment specialist in Bend learning how to be therapeutic parents. She has over 20 years experience as an Emergency Medical Technician, is a Certified Nurse Assistant, and is currently pursuing her nursing degree.

Kim Lucey, LCSW, ORPARC Family Support Specialist
Prior to becoming a Family Support Specialist for the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center, Kim was employed by the Department of Human Services Child Welfare for six years. During this time, her focus was in the area of permanency and adoption, both as a permanency caseworker and as a consultant educator and trainer (CET). Kim is also a licensed clinical social worker. She was supervised and trained by the DHS Post Adoption Therapy team. Kim has co-facilitated a therapy group for adopted adolescent girls. Prior to employment at DHS, Kim worked in two residential treatment centers in Portland.

Joan McNamara, MS, and Bernie McNamara, LCSW
Joan is the author of numerous articles on sexually abused children and foster care and adoption. She is the editor of the book Sexually Reactive Children in Adoption and Foster Care, and co-edited Adoption and the Sexually Abused Child with Bernie. She is the Director of Social Services for Hopscotch Adoptions, and Bernie is the Clinical Director for It Takes a Village Human Services in North Carolina. Joan has many years’ experience as a direct social worker, trainer, consultant, writer and publisher. She conducts trainings throughout the US on topics related to children with special needs and adoption/foster care. Joan and Bernie are parents to both biological and adopted children.

Michael McGrorty, Coordinador de entrenamientos y Apoyo familiar bilingüe
Michael McGrorty realiza varios papeles en el Centro de Recursos Pos-adoptivos de Oregon. Aparte de ser Gerente de oficina, también es Coordinador de entrenamientos y ofrece apoyo familiar a las familias de habla hispana.

Kersti Pettit-Kekel, Sensory Integration Specialist
Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) Child Development Rehabilitation Center.

Jennifer Ricks, MSW student, Department of Human Services
Jennifer is a Masters of Social Work student who is placed at ORPARC for her practicum. She is in the Child Welfare Partnership and has been employed with DHS Child Welfare for the last five and a half years. Jennifer has been in the social work field for over 10 years. In addition to her child welfare experience she has worked in the drug and alcohol treatment arena, and with hospice.

Sue Siefken, Occupational Therapist, St. Charles Medical Center
Sue Siefken has 20 years of experience in occupational therapy with the last 15 in pediatrics. Sue graduated with a Master's degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Southern California (USC). She is also a published author of independent living for adolescents with disabilities.

Melissa Smith-Hohnstein, MSW, LCSW, Clinician & Clinical
Services & Community Relations Coordinator, Kinship House
Melissa received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Portland State University in 1989. She has been a licensed clinical social worker since 1992. From 1985 to 1988, she worked in a residential treatment program for adolescent girls and boys. Upon completing the Master's program at PSU, she was employed at a community mental health clinic providing crisis emergency services and brief therapy to adults and children. In 1992, she transferred to a team that provided therapy to children and families in a variety of home settings. Some children resided with their birth families and others lived in foster and adoptive homes. In 1995, she became a founding board member and later a clinician for Kinship House. Her current clinical specialties include providing adoption transitions, sibling assessments and treating the prenatally exposed child. Melissa, herself, was adopted as a young child and is an adoptive parent.

Dr. Dave Ziegler, Ph.D., SCAR Jasper Mountain
A licensed Psychologist and licensed Marriage and Family therapist, Dr. Ziegler received his Ph.D. in counseling and psychology from the University of Oregon. He wrote his first training program for parents in 1972. Today he is Executive Director of SCAR/Jasper Mountain, a treatment program for some of our society’s most damaged children.

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