Leadership
Officers and Trustees
| President | Jenny Womack | 1 year term |
| Vice President | Eric Freeby | 1 year term |
| President-Elect | Margaret Swain | 1 year term |
| Immediate Past President | Genie Miller Gillespie | 1 year term |
| Executive Director - Board Secretary | Jennie Sullivan | Staff |
| Art Director | Nidhi Desai | 1st year of 1st term |
| ART Deputy Director | Laura Koupal | Appointed by AAAA President and ART Director |
| Adoption Director | Deb Guston | 2nd year of 1st term |
| Adoption Deputy Director of Domestic Adoptions | Sherriann Hicks | Appointed by AAAA President and Adoption Director |
| Adoption Deputy Director of International Adoptions | Kelly Dempsey | Appointed by AAAA President and Adoption Director |
| Trustee/Treasurer | Hal Atencio | 2nd year of 2nd term |
| Trustee | Janna Annest | 1st year of 1st term |
| Trustee | Rob Kirsh | 1st year of 1st term |
| Trustee | Josie Redwine | 2nd year of 1st term |
| Trustee | Lance Rich | 2nd year of 1st term |
| Trustee | Meryl Rosenberg | 1st year of 2nd term |
| Trustee | Kim Surratt | 2nd year of 1st term |
AAAA Committees
If you are a AAAA Fellow and interested in joining any of our committees after reading their description, please click on the Committee Chair's name to email them directly.| Organizational Committees | ||
| Amicus | Tabitha Koh | The Amicus Committee coordinates the preparation of and submits Amicus Curiae Briefs in select cases of national importance to improve the laws and practice of law pertaining to family building throughout the United States and abroad. |
| Awards | Colleen Quinn | The Awards Committee is responsible for maintaining and growing AAAA’s awards program, including the Fellow of Distinction, Susan Paquet Mentoring, and Unsung Hero Awards. |
| Finance | Hal Atencio | The Finance Committee oversees AAAA’s finances and reviews the audit and investments. |
| Governance | Eric Stovall, Tim Eirich | The Governance Committee assesses the need for and proposes appropriate amendments to the Bylaws and other governing documents. When called upon, the Committee ensures that the actions and the decisions taken by the Board are authorized by the AAAA Bylaws. |
| Governmental Affairs | Adoption Director and ART Director | The Governmental Affairs Committee coordinates with the AAAA President and AAAA lobbyists to identify initiatives to advance adoption or ART issues before the United States federal government and coordinates advocacy on federal legislative issues with other allied organizations. |
| Grievance | Margaret Swain, President-Elect | The Grievance Committee is responsible for enforcing AAAA’s Code of Ethics and Bylaws. It assesses complaints and recommends disciplinary action to the Board. |
| Legislative (Adoption) | Todd Gaudin, Deb Guston | The Adoption Legislative Committee monitors and reviews State legislation that may impact adoption practitioners, our clients and general policy in this area. |
| Legislative (ART) | Kurt Hughes, Margaret Swain | The ART Legislative Committee monitors and reviews State legislation that may impact ART practitioners, our clients and general policy in this area. |
| Marketing | Stephanie Caballero | The Marketing Committee advances AAAA’s public image. The committee makes recommendations to promote AAAA and its Fellows, refine our message and expand its reach and improve the public’s perception of the profession. |
| Membership | Greg Franklin (Adoption), Emily McArthur (ART) | The Membership Committee vets applications to AAAA and makes recommendations to the Board. Along with all AAAA Fellows, the committee seeks and encourages new applicants. |
| Member Value | Deb Guston | The Member Value Committee brings ideas to the Board for programs, goods, opportunities and information to benefit the Fellows. |
| Mentorship | Virginia Frank | The Mentorship Committee welcomes recently admitted Fellows by introducing them to AAAA, other Fellows, and the larger ART and adoption community, and provides a means for Fellows to network both in-person and virtually, develop relationships, become engaged in AAAA and learn about one another’s areas of practice. |
| Site Selection | Heidi Cox, Mark Demaray, Pat Hamilton, Rebecca Mendel, Theresa Roetter | The Site Selection Committee, in coordination with the Event Planner, investigates proposed annual and mid-year conference sites, makes recommendations to the Board, negotiates the conference hotel contracts, and serves as liaison between the conference chairs and the conference hotel. |
| Sponsor | Kim Surratt | The Sponsor Committee is responsible for developing ongoing relationships for active and potential sponsors for AAAA. |
| Education Committees | ||
| Conference Oversight | Catherine Keefe, Robin Pope | The Conference Planning Committee is responsible for creating consistency between conferences by establishing general guidelines and basic structure and consulting with each conference committee to meet the goals of AAAA. |
| Education | Appointed by the ART Director and Adoption Directors | The Education Committee develops and recommends education content for AAAA, including recommending topics and speakers to the conference CLE chairs and to the Webinar Committee. |
| Webinar | Rob Kirsh | The Webinar Committee organizes webinars on a variety of topics relevant to the practice of family formation law. |
| Practice Specific Committees | ||
| Adoption Agency | Lance Rich | The Adoption Agency Committee discusses issues of importance to agencies; communicates with agency representatives regarding relevant issues; plans and presents webinars focused on topics of interest to agency representatives, social workers, and attorneys for CEU and CLE credit; and coordinates efforts with other committees within AAAA and outside organizations to improve laws and practices concerning agencies. |
| Foster Care | Katie Jay, Keith Wallace | The Foster Care Committee focuses on ways to pursue permanency for children in foster care. The committee examines the legal rights of children in foster care, their caregivers, and parents. |
| ICPC | Barbara Ginn, Rob Kirsh | The ICPC Committee works to ensure best practices across states to get families home as quickly and efficiently as possible. The committee maintains an open dialogue with the national ICPC office to bring concerns and good practices to its attention. |
| ICWA | Mark Fiddler, Larry Jenkins | The ICWA Committee seeks to advance the best interests of Native American children. The committee strives to stay abreast of the latest developments under the ICWA, and to advocate on behalf of AAAA for children in a broad spectrum of matters, from specific court cases to general policy, rulemaking, and administrative proceedings. The committee educates AAAA Fellows on ICWA matters. |
| Independent Adoption | Janna Annest, Megan Monsour | The Independent Adoption Committee gathers information and shares experiences with issues unique to direct placements, such as working with a facilitator, best practices for locating expectant parents, and managing living expense payments. This committee also creates and maintains forms and resources for the benefit of AAAA Fellows and the public. |
| Intercountry Adoption | Dan Berger, Kelly Dempsey | The Intercountry Adoption Committee shares information and experiences among the Fellows practicing in this area and provides education on topics that are of interest to the membership. This committee actively responds to federal legislation and policy issues and provides amici briefs for AAAA for lawsuits involving intercountry adoption issues. |
| ART Resource | Meryl Rosenberg, Kim Surratt | The ART Resource Committee is responsible for promoting AAAA as a leader in ART law by providing, collecting and indexing resources. This Committee shares information and experiences among the Fellows and provides education on international and national topics that are of interest to the membership. |
| Non-AAAA Committees | ||
| Family Formation Charitable Trust | Donald Cofsky | The FFCT was formed to educate, support and assist individuals interested in creating families through adoption or assisted reproductive technology, primarily by providing grants to these individuals to make the adoption or ART process more affordable. Now that the FFCT is fully established, the trustees will be working diligently to secure additional donations and sponsors to help continue and increase the amount of grants given, and will be working to develop additional fundraising models and education to further the mission of the Trust. The Board Members (Trustees) have staggered terms. When there is an opening, the current President of AAAA reaches out to the membership for interested persons and then makes a recommendation to the AAAA Board to ratify the appointment. |
