Keynotes

OPENING REMARKS

Dr. Hesung Chun Koh
Co-founder and Chair of East Rock Institute

Dr. Koh is the chair of East Rock Institute, co-founded in 1952 with her late husband Dr. Kwanglim Koh. Author of five books including “Be a Person of Values, Not Just an Elite” and “Authentic Leadership in a Multicultural Society”, she has devoted a large part of her life to researching and teaching about Korean society and culture around the world. Her many awards include the Highest Honor for Civilians from the Republic of Korea.

As a professor she has taught sociology, Korean Studies and East Asian law at Boston University and Yale University. She also developed the award-winning website, Information System for Teaching and Research on Korea (www.instrok.org) and is the founding editor of Korean and Korean American Studies Bulletin, a biannual journal on Korean diaspora cultures.

KEYNOTE

Adam Pertman
Pulitzer Prize Nominee and Executive Director of  Adoption Institute
“Lessons from 50 Years of Korean Adoption”

Adam is the Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a national nonprofit that is the pre-eminent research, policy and education organization in its field. He is the author of the groundbreaking Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America, which has been reviewed as “the most important book ever written on the subject.” In addition, he is the author of many chapters and articles on adoption- and family-related issues in books, scholarly journals and mass-market publications.

Before embarking on his current career, Pertman was a senior journalist with The Boston Globe for more than two decades. His jobs included foreign editor, Washington news editor, diplomatic correspondent, national political correspondent, family and children’s issues reporter, and restaurant reviewer. His assignments included the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Philippine revolution, the Gulf War, the Mideast peace process, the O.J. Simpson trials, and several presidential elections. He is a member of the Council on Contemporary Families, the editorial advisory board of Adoptive Families magazine, and the National Adoption Advisory Committee of the Child Welfare League of America.He and his wife, Judy Baumwoll, live in Massachusetts with their two children: Zachary, 15, and Emilia, 12.