Monday Evening Speaker Series
Adoption Network Cleveland is pleased to offer a VIRTUAL Monday Evening Speaker Series full of topics that are of interest to a broad audience impacted by adoption, kinship, and foster care. These programs are made possible by donors and presenters volunteering their time and they thrive thanks to the active participation of attendees.
Upcoming Presentations
Monday, October 21, 2024
8:00 PM - 9:30 PM ET
Adoption and Suicidality Panel with Beth Syverson
*Please note this event is from 8:00-9:30 PM*
Adoption and Suicidality: Adopted people are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their non-adopted peers. Join the contributors to a new book, Adoption and Suicidality, in a discussion about how adoption impacts adoptees' mental health, and how we can all help prevent suicide. The panel, moderated by adoptive mom Beth Syverson, will consist of adoptees who have survived suicide attempts or chronic suicidality and parents whose child struggled with suicidality.
About Beth
Beth Syverson is an adoptive mom, wife, musician, and as of 2021 a podcaster, activist, and public speaker. Since 2019, her son Joey has struggled with addiction to substances plus serious mental health issues. For the first year of that roller coaster ride, she and Joey were both derailed. Beth tried to “fix” Joey, and her Supermom cape was tied on tight. But when nothing worked to “fix” him, she sought help for herself, which improved her own life and also her relationship to her wife Jan and to Joey. She and Joey created Safe Home Podcast in August 2021, with the purpose of helping other families avoid some of the pain they've experienced.
Beth adopted Joey from Japan when he was 7-1/2 months old. She now realizes that his relinquishment trauma is one of the core issues that causes him to seek substances. Beth is a leader for other adoptive parents who are coming “out of the fog” and realizing that the adoption that created their family also created trauma for their child. In September 2022, she created a free support group for adoptive parents called APtitude, and in August 2023, she became a certified coach through the Virginia Satir Global Network so she can help more adoptive parents and others who are struggling.
Monday, November 4, 2024
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM ET
Moving Beyond Awareness with Fred Nicora
For Fred, learning he was adopted came with two earthshaking revelations. First, he had no idea how central his birth story was to his sense of identity. Second, he was unaware that there was actually a group of the population in his state and country that had diminished records access rights—adoptees. Together, the two revelations sent Fred on a journey to redefine himself and find new purpose. Today, Fred’s writing work focuses on family, identity, different DNA, and the craziness of living in the Intersection.
About Fred
At the age of 41, Fred Nicora’s foundation was swept away by the slip of a tongue at a family gathering of about 250 extended family members. He discovered he was adopted as an infant. It wasn’t until he contacted the State of Wisconsin the following week to find out his factual identity that the second swing of the wrecking ball completed the annihilation of self, and he discovered he was legally prohibited from knowing his own story, his truth. Today, Fred is committed to bringing truth and transparency to all those affected by altered and hidden identities as a result of legal and societal barriers. Fred’s work is based on and inspired by compilations of real-life stories about genetic surprises derived from DNA databases, adoptions, and donor conceptions and the impacts they have on those affected, with the intention of spotlighting the need for factual birth information access to all.
Fred holds a B.S. in Business Administration, an M.S. in Management Technology, a master’s in architecture, and a secondary lifetime Teaching license via a master’s program. Careers explored include health care administration, architecture, business consulting, teaching, human resource management, and his own entrepreneurial endeavors including a startup gluten free baking enterprise and authoring his story of being thrust into the adoption constellation as a late-discovery adoptee.
A father of three grown children, Fred currently lives and maintains a small hobby farm in Southeastern Wisconsin. He is the author of Forbidden Roots: A Memoir of Late Discovery Adoption.
Monday, November 11, 2024
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM ET
A Conversation with Canadian filmmaker Adrian Wills on his film "A Quiet Girl"
Join us for an engaging discussion with Canadian filmmaker Adrian Wills about his film, "A Quiet Girl." The film will be available for digital viewing starting August 1st. To make the most of the event, we encourage everyone to watch the film beforehand. Adrian will join us to share insights into his journey with the film and participate in a Q&A session.
In A Quiet Girl, adopted Montreal filmmaker Adrian Wills commits, on camera and in real time, to unravelling the mystery of his complex beginnings in Newfoundland. Spurred on by a meager clue in his adoption documents, Wills spends two years travelling from the wild beauty of Canada’s most eastern coastline to the red heat of Arizona in search of answers. What Wills finally uncovers pierces into the meaning of family, revealing disquieting parallels between his own life and that of the birth mother he never knew.
This moving feature documentary combines 16mm footage and contemporary images with deeply personal conversations, transforming an urgent search for identity into a quest to give a quiet girl her voice. Ultimately, Wills honours his birth mother’s resilience and, in doing so, reveals his own. The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has provided a private, commercial-free Vimeo link for registrants to view the film before this presentation.
About Adrian
Adrian Wills is an award-winning director, series co-creator and showrunner with a passion for character-driven storytelling across various genres. His projects range from the co-created sports drama series 21 Thunder (CBC/Netflix) to All Together Now: The Beatles Love, winner of the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video. A Quiet Girl is Wills’ first film with the National Film Board of Canada and his most personal one yet—a POV feature documentary that begins as a mystery about his adoption in Newfoundland. In 2023, Wills will be releasing a new feature music documentary entitled Leonard Cohen: Tower of Song.
A citizen of both Canada and Australia, Wills studied Media at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia and Film Production at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Canada.
Monday, December 2, 2024
8:00 PM ET - 9:00 PM ET
DNA Decoded: Harnessing Epigenetic Testing to Empower Members of the Adoption Constellation and Revolutionize Tools for Behavioral Wellness with Dr. Evelyn Higgins
While genes play a 10-33% role in physical health, they can play up to a 50% role in mental health. For those in the DCP, NPE, and adoption communities, being separated from lineage can present challenges when it comes to understanding the biology behind behavioral wellness. Join Dr. Higgins, founder of Wired BioHealth and member of the adoption constellation, to learn more about how genes and other biomarkers can be tested and turned off/on through epigenetics to help individuals live their most optimal lives.
About Evelyn
Founder of Wired BioHealth(TM) and Wired For Addiction(R), Dr. Evelyn Higgins is a recognized international expert in the epidemiology of addiction and other behavioral wellness complexities. As a Diplomate of the American College of Addictionology and Compulsive Disorders, Diplomate of the American Board of Disability Analysts specializing in pain management, as well as a Certified Addictionologist, Dr. Higgins has had the honor of advising the U.S. Surgeon General, served as a 1996 Olympic Team Doctor and Olympic torch bearer, and was a 2021 Nominee for Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Innovators in Healthcare.
With 35 years in clinical practice & consulting, Dr. Higgins has designated over 17 years to Research and Development in the science of mental health and addiction recovery. The keynote of the 2024 Addiction Studies Institute Conference at the Ohio State Medical Center, TEDx Speaker, and panelist at numerous international conferences including the 2022 International Society of Substance Use Professionals Annual Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Dr. Higgins finds herself at the nexus of epigenetics, neuroscience, and mental health.
Monday, December 16, 2024
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM ET
An International Adoptee's Perspective: Navigating Adoptee and Immigrant Identity with Svetlana Sandoval
Svetlana Sandoval is an International Adoptee from Russia. She was adopted to the U.S. during the peak wave of international adoptions in the late 90s. Svetlana will share her experience of growing up as an international adoptee, and how her understanding of adoption evolved throughout her teens and young adulthood. Svetlana is in reunion with her birthmother and family in Russia, and will share the complexities of navigating a virtual reunion across language and cultural barriers. She will also share how misinformation from her adoption agency left her unaware of her native citizenship status and how dual citizenship has brought additional complexities to traveling to meet her family in person. Svetlana has spent the last two years reclaiming her immigrant identity and will share about her immigrant community experiences and choice to reclaim her original name. Svetlana is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Social Work and will share how her adoptee and immigrant identities have informed her academic path to support international adoptees on their journeys.
