2027 Barker Adoption & Foster Care Conference + Teen Connections
What We Carry Forward
Honest conversations. Lived experience. Lifelong learning.
Adoption is more than a single moment.
It is a lifelong experience shaped by identity, relationships, belonging, change and connection.
On March 13, The Barker Adoption Foundation brings together adopted people, birth parents, adoptive and foster families, prospective parents, and the professionals who support them for a full day of honest conversation, practical learning and meaningful connection.
What makes Barker’s conference different is whose voices are in the room. Lived experience and professional expertise come together, creating opportunities not only to learn about adoption and foster care, but to learn from one another.
Come ready to listen, connect and leave with something meaningful to carry forward.
Registration opens October 1, 2026. Breakfast and lunch provided. CEU credits are available for professionals.
Location: The Universities at Shady Grove, 9630 Gudelsky Dr., Rockville, MD 20850
Date and time: Saturday, March 13, 2027 8:15 AM–4:30 PM ET
Organizer: The Barker Adoption Foundation, (301) 664-9664, info@barkerfoundation.org
Who Should Attend?
The Barker Adoption & Foster Care Conference is designed for people across the adoption and foster care community, including:
- Adopted people
- Birth parents
- Current and prospective adoptive, foster and kinship parents
- Adoption, foster care and mental-health professionals
- Social workers and child-welfare professionals
- Judges, adoption attorneys, guardians ad litem and other legal professionals supporting children and families
- Barker families and community members
Whether you are personally connected to adoption or foster care or support families professionally, the conference offers an opportunity to learn from perspectives that may be different from your own.
Speakers and Sessions
OPENING KEYNOTE
Debbie Schugg
The Story Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect — Just Honest
Adoption doesn’t come with a tidy narrative. It comes with joy and grief in the same breath, with love that shows up in unexpected shapes, and with questions that don’t always have simple answers. Debbie Schugg opens the day by embracing all of it. Through personal storytelling that moves seamlessly between humor and heart, she reminds every birth parent, adoptee, adoptive and foster parent, and professional in the room that belonging doesn’t require a perfect story — just an honest one. This keynote sets the tone for a day built on honesty: come ready to laugh, maybe wipe away a tear, and leave reminded of why this community shows up for each other, year after year.
Explore the 2027 Sessions
SESSION ONE | 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
1A. Adult Adoptee Connection Circle: Exploring Identity, Belonging, and Worthiness
Speaker/Presenter: Tony Hynes, Ph.D., Adoptee & Author
Adult adoptees only
Designed exclusively for adult adoptees, this interactive workshop offers more than a traditional presentation—it is a supportive, participant-centered space where adoptees can gather in community and engage in meaningful conversation. Centering the lived experiences of adult adoptees, this session invites participants to explore the lifelong impact of adoption through honest dialogue, reflection, and shared connection.
Together, participants will discuss themes of identity, belonging, and self-worth, recognizing both the unique and universal aspects of the adoptee experience. Through guided conversation and mutual support, attendees will have the opportunity to connect with others who understand the complexities of navigating adulthood as an adoptee.
Whether you are early in your journey of self-discovery or have spent years exploring your adoption story, this session provides a welcoming environment to share, listen, and deepen your understanding of yourself and others. By honoring each person’s story while embracing our shared humanity, participants will leave feeling more connected, seen, and supported.
Tony Hynes, Ph.D.
Adoptee & Author
1B. Caring for the Caregivers: Wellness Strategies for Kinship, Foster, and Adoptive Families
Speaker/Presenter: Estella SwainParents and caregivers often devote so much of themselves to supporting their children that their own needs are pushed to the background. This session invites participants to move beyond traditional ideas of self-care and explore the deeper practice of self-nourishment. Together, we will examine what it means to sustain ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally, and relationally while navigating the joys and complexities of parenting. Participants will explore practical strategies for managing stress, strengthening resilience, recognizing their own needs, and building daily practices that are realistic and sustainable. They will leave with renewed permission to care for themselves, not as an afterthought, but as an essential part of supporting family well-being and long-term connection.
Estella Swain
1C. Growing Up Seen and Unseen: What We Wish Our Parents Knew
Speaker/Presenter: Michelle Valdivia + PanelistsSome of the most important things adoptees carry are never said out loud — not because they don’t matter, but because the moment to say them never quite arrives. This session is that moment. A panel of young adult adoptees shares candid, personal reflections: the questions they wished someone had asked, the words they needed to hear, and the small, ordinary moments that made them feel truly known. This workshop offers a rare, honest window into the adoptee experience, followed by real dialogue. Attendees leave with more than insight: they leave with one concrete, specific thing they can do differently, starting today.
Michelle Valdivia
SESSION TWO | 12:45 PM – 2:00 PM
2A. Honoring My Story: The Lifelong Journey of Being a Birth Parent
Speaker/Presenter: Dale Cassady + PanelistsThis supportive session welcomes both birth parents and those seeking to better understand the birth parent experience. Featuring a panel of birth parents sharing their own stories, we’ll explore the lifelong journey that follows the creation of an adoption plan, including how identity, relationships, and personal growth continue to evolve over time. Panelists will speak candidly about their experiences, followed by guided conversation that invites shared perspectives from the room. Participants will gain insight into the emotional landscape of birth parents, along with tools for supporting well-being, navigating changing connections, and honoring this unique role in a child’s life story. This workshop offers understanding, validation, and a space for meaningful connection.
Dale Cassady
2B. Building Protection Against Racism: Research-Based Strategies for Families
Speaker/Presenter: Nabina Liebow, Ph.D.Research suggests that while fostering cultural pride and identity is essential, it is not enough on its own to protect children from the harmful effects of racism. This interactive session explores the critical distinction between cultural socialization and preparation for experiencing bias, highlighting evidence-based strategies that help build resilience and reduce the negative impact of discriminatory experiences. Participants will leave with practical, developmentally appropriate tools and conversation strategies they can immediately use to prepare children to recognize, respond to, and recover from racism while strengthening their sense of identity, safety, and well-being.
Nabina Liebow, Ph.D.
2C. Guiding the Conversation: When and How to Share Difficult Information with Your Child
Speaker/Presenter: Debbie SchuggParents and caregivers are the best people to address children’s painful topics and provide context on their history — whether that conversation is just beginning or decades overdue. This interactive discussion serves two groups: those who’ve kept parts of their child’s story private and wonder if it’s too late to share, and those earlier in their journey building comfort sharing information as it becomes developmentally appropriate. We’ll explore sensitive topics, unpack why these conversations feel difficult, and address when and how to begin — meeting your child where they are, whether toddler, teen, or adult. We’ll also address the flip side of these conversations: helping your child understand that their story is theirs to share, and why protecting their privacy — deciding who else does and doesn’t need to know their history — is just as important as being open with them about it within the family.
Debbie Schugg
SESSION THREE | 2:15 PM – 3:30 PM
3A. Walking Together: Adult Adoptees and Parents on the Search for Identity
Moderator: Elena Taylor + PanelistsMany adult adoptees feel a deep desire to understand who they are, even when little or no information exists about their birth family. This panel brings together adult adoptees and adoptive parents to share their lived experiences of navigating identity, curiosity, and the unknown. Together, they’ll explore how parents can offer support — even when the process feels emotionally vulnerable or scary — and how adoptees experience the search from the inside. Attendees will gain practical language, grounding strategies, and insight into staying connected while honoring an adult child’s evolving identity journey.
Elena Taylor
3B. Pride in Parenting: Supporting LGBTQ+ Parents and LGBTQ+ Children
Moderator: Cynthia Cubbage + Panelists
Families formed through adoption already navigate unique layers of identity, belonging, and community — and when LGBTQ+ identities are part of the picture, those layers can become even richer and more unique. This affirming session brings together a panel of LGBTQ+ adoptive parents and parents raising LGBTQ+ children to share their lived experiences. Panelists will discuss building inclusive support networks, advocating in schools and communities, nurturing healthy identity development, and handling moments when the world doesn’t fully understand their family. Participants will leave with practical strategies, renewed confidence, and a deeper sense of connection to a vibrant, diverse community of adoptive families.
Cynthia Cubbage
3C. Real Journeys: A Parent Panel on Foster-Care Adoption
Moderator: Estella Swain + Panelists
Every “yes” to adopting a child from foster care may begin with the question, “What if I can’t do this?” Every parent on this panel has wrestled with uncertainty, and their decision to move forward changed the course of their family’s life. Meet families who said yes, even when they did not have every answer.
This compelling panel brings together parents who adopted their children from foster care, joined when possible, by their now-older children, offering a rare opportunity to hear the journey from multiple perspectives. Through honest and unfiltered conversation, they will share the fears they had to work through, the realities and surprises they encountered, and the moments that helped transform uncertainty into connection and family.
Participants will hear real answers to questions they may be hesitant to ask: What does the system actually look like from the inside? How do you build trust with a child who has experienced loss? What does it mean to support identity, belonging, and connection over time? Is it possible to ever feel fully ready, or is becoming a family something you grow into together?
This is not a lecture. It is a conversation with people who have lived the journey and are willing to share their hard-won wisdom, honest reflections, and hope.
Estella Swain
Closing Session:
What We Carry Forward
We close the day the way it opened — in honest conversation. A panel of Barker conference attendees, including an adoptee, a birth parent, an adoptive parent, and a Barker adoption professional, comes together to reflect on what they’re carrying home from today, and what they’re moved to act on because of it. Before they go, all conference participants will receive a small token of growth to take with them — a tangible reminder that what took root today doesn’t end when the day does.
Teen Connections | Ages 13–17
While parents and caregivers participate in the conference, Teen Connections: What We Carry Forward gives adopted teens ages 13–17 their own space to connect, build friendships and spend time with peers who may share similar experiences.
Throughout the day, teens will take part in fun, interactive activities, games and opportunities to socialize in a relaxed and welcoming environment. They’ll also participate in a creative activity exploring the strengths, values, relationships, culture, experiences and parts of their identity they want to carry forward.
Each teen will create something personal representing what matters to them—whether that’s a goal, a source of strength, an important relationship, part of their identity, or simply a word or message they want to remember.
The day balances fun and connection with meaningful opportunities for teens to celebrate who they are, explore their identity and consider what they want to carry forward as they continue to grow.
Parents and caregivers can attend the full Barker Adoption & Foster Care Conference while their teen participates in Teen Connections.
Sample Schedule:
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 8:15 – 8:50 AM | Registration and Resource Fair |
| 8:50 – 10:15 AM | Main Conference Room with Parent/Guardian |
| 10:15 – 10:30 AM | ⭐ Transition to Teen Connections Room ⭐ |
| 10:30 – 11:00 AM | Icebreakers |
| 11:00 – 12:00 PM | Lilly Trone – Guest Speaker |
| 12:00 – 1:00 PM | Lunch |
| 1:00 – 2:00 PM | Lilly Trone – Guest Speaker |
| 2:00 – 3:00 PM | Outside Game Time |
| 3:00 – 3:30 PM | ⭐ Transition Back to Main Room ⭐ |
| 3:30 – 4:30 PM | Closing / Raffle |
Registration is Open!
Standard Conference Registration: $140
Early Bird Conference Registration: $115 ($25 off)
Teen Connections: $140
Early Bird Conference Registration: $115 ($25 off)
Additional Teen Connections Participant: $115
Early-bird registration available through February 15, 2027.
Sponsorship
Support the 2027 Conference
Organizations and community partners are invited to support Barker’s Annual Adoption & Foster Care Conference and help make learning, connection and community accessible across the adoption and foster care constellation.
Sponsorship opportunities coming soon.