Meet Our Team
Whether your organization or agency is looking for a speaker, a trainer or a project consultant (or all of the above), NCAP can fill that need with one or more of the most-accomplished professionals in their fields. To learn more about our people and services, or to inquire about engaging any of our team members, please contact Adam at: apertman@ncap-us.org or 617-903-0554.
Adam Pertman
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Carol J. Bishop, LMFT
Carol is a nationally recognized expert in program leadership, adoption policy and practice, permanency-competent training, post-adoption and mental health services. As co-founder and VP of Kinship Center, she led the development and administration of many programs, as well as children’s mental health clinics and Education Institute. Carol – a former president of the CA Assn of Adoption Agencies – is a skilled trainer, facilitator, program development expert, and permanency policy specialist.
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Susan is one of the most respected and experienced professionals in the field of international adoption and child welfare, a field in which she has worked for over 25 years. As Vice President of Policy and Advocacy for Holt International Children’s Services, she is a frequent presenter, trainer and expert witness nationally and internationally. Susan, who was adopted from Korea in 1956, is available to provide consultation and training on a range of policy and program issues relating to Intercountry adoption, race and ethnicity, and best practices.
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Joe is among the most highly regarded professionals in child welfare. His clinical experience includes adoption, foster care, and physical and sexual abuse, and he is a specialist in kinship care and transracial adoptions. He is also an author and speaker who has won many awards and has provided training and consulting across this country and others. Joe is available as an expert trainer and consultant for professionals, parents and caregivers on many topics relating to kinship care and adoption.
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Lynne is a highly respected clinician, trainer, curriculum writer, policy developer administrator, consultant and advocate. Before joining NCAP, she held senior positions in child welfare in the public and private sectors in Virginia for over four decades. She is an expert practitioner with children and families who utilizes a trauma-informed, strength-based therapeutic approach. Lynne is available as an expert trainer and consultant for professionals, parents and caregivers on numerous topics.
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Paul is a highly accomplished, nationally recognized expert in public interest law. He has served most recently as VP of Public Counsel, the nation’s largest provider of pro bono legal services. Paul also was appointed to the ABA’s Commissions on Youth at Risk and on Homelessness and Poverty. At Public Counsel, he promulgated advocacy programs to empower distressed households, help children and families, humanize the criminal and juvenile justice systems, and prevent and end homelessness.
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Lynn provides leadership and practice skills in all aspects of pre- and post-adoption work. For over three decades, she has developed curricula and conducted trainings for all types of adoptive families. Lynn, who founded Lutheran Social Services of New England’s Post-Adoption Center, is highly knowledgeable about race and culture in adoptive families, having developed the landmark curriculum "The Multiracial/Multicultural Family Grows Up." She also works extensively with youth and schools.
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Valerie brings 25 years of experience in child welfare services, juvenile and adult corrections, probation and women’s recovery services. She has been an adoption and foster care social work specialist, a clinical trainer, and a therapist in Kinship’s adoption and permanency children’s mental health clinic. She has worked internationally and is passionate about cultural competency in mental health services. She also is a minister who works as a prison therapist in California.
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Catie brings experience in leadership, coaching, innovation and culture change, working with executives and teams to improve personal and organizational effectiveness. As a consultant and executive coach – currently with the Partnership for Public Service – she focuses on helping leaders develop and execute leadership and management strategies.Individually or with NCAP’s executives, she is available to train or consult on issues relating to organizational effectiveness, leadership and employee engagement, and to provide individual or group coaching.
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Liz is a licensed clinical psychologist whose experience includes work in residential treatment facilities, in a center serving traumatized youth in foster care, and managing a team of mental health professionals in a joint behavioral health and social services clinic. In her current work in a corrections/rehabilitation setting, she sees the negative lifelong impact of untreated attachment, trauma and loss. Liz is available to train and consult on permanency-competent psychology services and interdisciplinary models for post-adoption/permanency care.
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Ron is an expert family therapist with over two decades of experience in cutting-edge research on trauma, adoption and sensory-based therapies. He is a national trainer on adoption and permanency for social workers, therapists, policy-makers and faith-based organizations. He has been a director of community-based mental health and post-adoption mental health clinics for children and families and regularly appears on talk shows and in the news media.
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Greg is a licensed clinical psychologist who has extensive experience with government, non-profits and mental health agencies, providing intensive case management services on behalf of youth in care and serving as a mental health liaison. He has helped develop and implement innovative programs, and provides training, speaking and consulting on a broad range of topics. He is available to train or consult on child welfare and child mental health issues, community mental health program development and analysis, and case management issues.
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Lisa brings 25 years of experience working with first/birth and adoptive parents, those experiencing infertility, and adopted individuals connecting with their origins. She works from a holistic frame, trauma-sensitive and steeped in yogic philosophy. Lisa is an adoptive parent who co-founded Adoption Resource Network, Inc. and, in addition to her work with NCAP, is Director of Adoption Services at Hillside Children’s Center in NY State. She is available to train and consult on adoption, foster care, trauma, recruitment and placement.
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Pat was the Founder and Executive Director of You Gotta Believe! The Older Child Adoption & Permanency Movement, Inc., a nationally acclaimed advocacy and placement organization. In addition to working with NCAP, he is now a recruiter for Wendy’s Wonderful Kids with Connecticut-based Klingberg Family Centers. Pat is available as a consultant or trainer in areas including advocating for permanent parents for all teens and young adults, utilizing laughter to alleviate stresses, and the power of unconditional commitment.
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Renette is a highly respected philanthropic and thought leader who enabled significant progress in the fields of adoption, foster care and child welfare through her senior grant management at the Freddie Mac Foundation for 23 years – including of the highly successful, media-based Wednesday’s Child program. Renette is available to consult and train areas including philanthropy, policy and advocacy, program and initiative development and implementation, and building corporate partnerships.
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Laura specializes in services for young children and diverse families, with a focus on relative caregivers and Latino family systems. She has educated professionals nationwide on best practices and is a contributing curriculum developer and author on the work of her mental health clinics. Laura specializes in permanency-competent mental health services, directs a family service agency at Vista del Mar and, at Kinship Center, developed clinics on attachment-based, experiential techniques that encourage healing through relationships.
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Pat brings over 40 years of experience and successes in the field of child welfare. She brought the need for permanency for foster youth to national attention, and has provided executive leadership and program development in both public and non-profit child welfare agencies. As a Program Executive at the Stuart Foundation, Pat provided the impetus for the youth permanency movement and development of numerous programs, including concurrent planning in child welfare practice.
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Cindy, a graduate of the Colorado child welfare system, has worked for 25 years as a social worker and clinician, focusing on children and families impacted by abuse, neglect, foster care and adoption. She and her partner adopted two sons from care, and she was found by her biological brother, who had been placed for adoption. Cindy, a psychiatric social worker for Kaiser Permanente, trains and speaks nationally. Previously, she was a therapist and assistant clinical director for Kinship Center and served as a Director of Camp to Belong.
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Sharon has provided trainings, presentations and other highly regarded work on all aspects of fostering and adoption for several decades, nationally and internationally. In addition to providing direct services to families, she is an accomplished author, educator and organizational consultant on adoption’s lifelong issues and inter-generational impact. Sharon proposed the first clinical training to achieve competency in the field for child placement and mental health professionals. She also was a pioneer in open adoption, and created landmark educational work for developing practice relating to openness, as well as to LGBTQ families in adoption.
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Graham Wright, M.Phil. MSW
Graham offers extensive clinical and program experience. He founded California’s first therapeutic foster and adoption agency, and designed and implemented the state’s wraparound program for families with at-risk children. A past legislative chair and president of the California Assn. of Adoption Agencies, he also designed and maintains the state’s internet matching database system. Graham is available for training and consulting in areas including specialized family recruitment, preparing families for placement, and adoption wraparound.
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