Howard Davidson, J.D., has been actively involved with the legal aspects of child protection for over 35 years. He
has directed the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law since its 1978 establishment. He
served as chair of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, is a founding board member of the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children, on the board of ECPAT-USA, and is a member of the Maryland
Children’s Justice Task Force. He was named by the Mayor of Philadelphia to a Department of Human Services
Community Oversight Board to help guide improvements in that city’s child protection system. Howard also served
as as U.S. delegate to the first World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. He has
authored many legal articles on child maltreatment as well as legal commentaries to chapters of the American
Psychiatric Association book, Family Violence: A Clinical and Legal Guide. His most recent writings include
Racial Disparities in the Child Welfare System: Reversing Trends, in the Center’s ABA Child Law Practice
publication, A Common Bond: Maltreated Children and Animals in the Home—Guidelines for Practice and Policy,
and International Legal Principles for Judges and Child Welfare Agencies to Apply with Unaccompanied and
Undocumented Immigrant Children. In 2009 the ABA published a book co-edited by Mr. Davidson, entitled
Children, Law, and Disasters: What We Have Learned from Katrina and the Hurricanes of 2005, and his 2008
article, Federal Law and State Intervention When Parents Fail: Has National Guidance of Our Child Welfare
System Been Successful, was published in the 50th anniversary issue of the Family Law Quarterly.
Dr. Diane B. Kunz, Esq. is Executive Director of the Center for Adoption Policy, a 501 © 3 corporation that has
become a pre-eminent legal and policy institute engaged in adoption issues. The Center for Adoption Policy was
honored in 2008 by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute as an Angel in Adoption. The adoption law
and policy conference organized by the New York Law School and the Center for Adoption Policy has become a
key event for practitioners, officials and scholars of adoption issues. Dr. Kunz’s expertise has been requested by
government agencies such as the Department of State, the Centers for Disease Control and USCIS. In the aftermath
of the Haitian earthquake, she served as the government liaison for Maison des Enfants de Dieu, helping 104
children come to the United States with humanitarian parole status. At the same time she actively assisted the U.S.
government in the efforts to help the Haitian children who came to the U.S. through humanitarian parole achieve full
and final adoptions and U.S. citizenship. Beginning in 1976 until 1983 Dr. Kunz practiced corporate law with the
firms of White & Case and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (Barnard College, A.B., 1973; Cornell University, J.D.
1976;) visiting student Columbia University -- Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, 1975-1976). She left the practice of law
and studied diplomatic and economic history at Oxford University (M. Litt. 1986) and Yale University (Ph.D, 1989).
From 1988 until 1998 she was Assistant, then Associate Professor of History at Yale University. While at Yale she
wrote extensively on twentieth century history, including the prize winning book ,The Economic Diplomacy of the
Suez Crisis and Butter and Guns: The Economic Diplomacy of the Cold War. From 1998-2001 she taught history
and international relations at Columbia University. Her academic career has given her unique insights into the
functioning of the Department of State and other federal government departments and agencies. In 2001 she and
Ann Reese founded the Center for Adoption Policy. Dr. Kunz is a member of the New York bar. She is an honorary
fellow of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive
Technology Attorneys. Dr. Kunz is of counsel to Rumbold & Seidelman. She is also the mother of eight children,
four of whom were born in China through the non-special needs and waiting children adoption programs.
Whitney Reitz has worked on immigration issues at the Department of State and USCIS for 19 years. She currently
serves in the International Operations Division as the Branch Chief for Programs, where she and her staff of five
officers help manage the operations of USCIS’ 29 overseas Field Offices. The Programs Branch is currently
focused on intercountry adoptions, refugee and asylee family reunification cases, and military naturalizations,
although the Branch assists in the development of policy and operational guidance for all aspects of USCIS
international operations. Ms. Reitz first joined USCIS in the spring of 2008 as part of the Office of Transformation
Coordination, helping to craft the business approach to transforming the agency from a paper-based application
system to an electronic, customer-centric system. Before USCIS, Ms. Reitz worked at the State Department for 17
years, first as a Foreign Service Officer, with overseas tours in Moscow and Oslo, and then in the Civil Service,
working in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. She has worked extensively on issues related to
immigration, refugee admissions, international humanitarian assistance, temporary protected status, and
international migration. In her last position at State, she served as the Overseas Processing Section Chief for the
Refugee Admissions Program, managing a global network of processing centers for refugee applicants, with an
annual budget of some $200 million. Ms. Reitz lives in Fairfax, Virginia with her husband, mother, and three
children.
Professor Joan Heifetz Hollinger is a leading American scholar on adoption law and policy. As a faculty member
at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law School since 1993, and before that, as a Professor of Law at
the University of Detroit, she has been devoted to research, teaching, and advocacy on family law issues, especially
as they affect the welfare of children. She is the editor and principal author of the standard national treatise
Adoption Law and Practice 3 vols. (Lexis\Matthew Bender Co. 1988-2008), co-editor of Families By Law: An
Adoption Reader (NYU Press, 2004), and the author of numerous articles and conference papers. She is the
Reporter for the proposed Uniform Adoption Act, helped draft the revised Uniform Parentage Act of 2002, and
wrote the federal Guide to the Multiethnic Placement Act (1998). She is now at the forefront of efforts to improve
and implement the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption and to ensure that an individual’s sexual orientation
is not a bar to becoming a legal parent. She has appeared as amicus curiae on behalf of children in a number of highprofile adoption, assisted reproduction, and custody cases in state and federal courts.
Karen Stoutamyer Law, of the Law Firm of Karen S. Law, PLC, practices law in Northern Virginia. Her practice
is limited to adoption and immigration law for adopted children. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
School of Law in 1985. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, a member of the
American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Virginia Women Attorneys Association and the Loudoun Bar
Association. Mrs. Law frequently speaks on adoption and immigration at local and national conferences. She assists
clients with family based immigration filings, orphan visa petitions, I-800-A applications, VAWA applications,
citizenship filings, adoption overview planning, private adoptions, agency finalizations, foster care finalizations,
relative adoptions and re-adoptions.
Kathleen Hogan Morrison is a Chicago attorney, concentrating in adoption and parentage matters. Kathleen
handles all types of adoption cases, including agency, private, agency-assisted, special needs, related, intercountry,
and interstate adoptions. She is Immediate Past President of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and
formerly served on its Board of Trustees. She has been selected by her peers to be a member of the Leading Lawyers
Network and its advisory board, as well as a member of Illinois Super Lawyers. Kathleen was selected as one of the
Top 50 Women Lawyers in Illinois; and she was designated an Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition
on Adoption Institute. She has served as the chairperson of the Chicago Bar Association, Adoption Law Committee,
was chosen as expert witness for the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission for the Illinois Supreme
Court, and is on the Review Committee for Joint Council on International Children’s Services. In addition,
Kathleen represents parties in contested adoption matters, which are referred to her by other lawyers, agencies,
judges, and former clients. She is a frequent speaker and author on issues of adoption, foster parenting, permanency
planning, and termination of parental rights. Kathleen is admitted to practice before the Illinois Supreme Court and
all other Illinois courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the United States District
Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.