PEAR would like to welcome its first all-adoptee Officer Board.
Cherish Bolton (President): Cherish Asha Bolton is an intercountry, transracial adoptee from India raised in America. She is a historian who researches the legal and social status of vulnerable children in India. She has an MA in history and is completing her doctorate. She works with adoptee-centered efforts to focus on adoption education, creating adoptee resources, and adoptee advocacy. Cherish is passionate about discussing adoptee mental health; the laws surrounding adoption (particularly in Indian intercountry adoption); the language and rhetoric used surrounding adoption; race, gender, class, and religion; and critical adoption studies. She currently lives in Illinois with her partner and very large dog.
Rebecca Dragon (Vice President, Director of Domestic Programs and Outreach): Rebecca is a domestic adoptee born at the tail end of the Baby Scoop Era in Washington DC. She spent the last decade as the Creator and Director of Meetinghouse Farm CSE (Community Supported Education), a collaborative endeavor serving many homeschooling families. She is the Creator of Adoption: Beyond Myths, Misgivings, and Mayhem, a public platform with the goal of elevating the adoptee voice and encouraging adoptee autonomy. She is also the Creator and Director of Living Adoption, an adoptee-led educational platform for adoptive and foster parents. She lives with her husband and three children in Vermont.
Alana Hook (Secretary): Alana is a same-race adoptee in reunion. She works as a social service advocate in adult, juvenile, and dependency courts using her years of experience with adoption, foster care, and trauma-informed approaches. Alana is passionate about reform and progress in mental health, class issues, family preservation, and children’s legal issues at large. She comes with a wealth of knowledge about the American Judicial System, family law, and human rights. Alana is interested in the creation of research-backed resources on adoption, increasing knowledge about adoptee mental health, and increasing PEAR’s reach into domestic and foster care communities.
Whitney Fritzinger (Treasurer): Whitney is a Chinese Intercountry adoptee. She is passionate about developing programs to serve the most vulnerable in our communities. Her Bachelor’s is in Chemistry with minors in Mathematics and East Asian Studies. She is currently pursuing an MBA with a focus on data analytics.
Nicki Clark Bradley (Director of Intercountry Programs): is an Intercountry adoptive parent (Vietnam). The Baby Scoop Era impacted several members of her family, which drove her to work in adoption advocacy. She spent time on the Board of Ethics and founded Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity.
Thaddeus Batt (Board Member)
Karen Moline (Board Member)