TITLE: MEPA/IEPA/ICWA

DESCRIPTION

This event features panelists Jordan Davis, Sandy White Hawk, Tori DiMartile, and Daryle Conquering Bear Crow discussing the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA)/Inter-Ethnic Placement Provisions Act (IEPA) and the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

PANELISTS:

Daryle Conquering Bear Crow (he/him/his), Oglala Lakota, is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux nation, located in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Daryle speaks about native youth who experience the child welfare system and advocates for the enforcement of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Daryle has worked with Casey Family Programs Indian Child Welfare Unit and has served on various boards for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Capacity Building for Tribes and the North American Council on Adoptable Children. He has also collaborated and has interned with the National Indian Child Welfare Association. In 2015, Daryle was selected by President Obama and his Administration as a White House Champion for Change. Additionally, he has coached high school varsity basketball and volleyball teams. Daryle is excited to join this panel and provide real life experience and advocacy for Native/Indigenous foster and adopted people.

Jordan Davis (he/him/his) is a Black/African American domestic, interracial adoptee. After a closed private infant adoption, Jordan has been in reunion with his first/biological family in Louisiana since 2018. Jordan has been involved in Adoption Mosaic since 2020 and is currently serving as a Facilitator, but has also participated as a We The Experts panelist and in curriculum development. Jordan currently resides in Austin, Texas where he is pursuing his PhD in Anthropology centered on Black Southern heritage. Jordan is excited to be in conversation with other adoptees about the history and legacies of these pivotal laws and policies, and hopes to speak on his own journey as a person of African descent.

Tori DiMartile (she/her) is a speaker, consultant, and social science researcher passionate about lifelong learning and social change. Torie was transracially adopted as an infant and grew up in a white town, neighborhood, and school environment.Torie is the founder of Wreckage and Wonder LLC, a small business that provides transracial adoption education through one-on-one prospective adoptive parent consultations and group webinars. Torie is also a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at Indiana University working towards a dissertation titled “Transracial Adoption in the Age of #GeorgeFloyd: Race and Kinship in U.S. Adoption.” Torie is excited to share about the impacts of MEPA and the legacy of ICWA and learn more from her fellow panelist's experience and knowledge.

Sandy Whitehawk (she/her/hers) is a Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. She is the founder and Director of First Nations Repatriation Institute (FNRI). She organizes Truth Healing Reconciliation Community Forums that bring together adoptees/fostered individuals and their families and professionals with the goal to identify post adoption issues and First Nations family preservation strategies. She is the Director of Healing Programs at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. Sandy is excited to be on a panel of experts, a powerful group of lived experience and vision.

Alternate Panelist, Sullivan Summer (she/her) is a domestic, transracial adoptee raised in rural New Hampshire. After more than 20 years as an attorney and corporate executive, Sullivan is engaged in the most personal work of her life, leaning into her identity as a transracial adoptee to write and advocate in support of the adoptee community. Her work focuses on themes of adoption, identity, race, politics, U.S. History, and pop culture. She is a member of the 2023 Brooklyn Poets Mentorship Program and a regular contributor to Adoptees OffScript. Sullivan is thrilled to be part of this panel discussing the impacts of law and policy on the lived experiences of adoptees.