Adoption Transitions

Abigail Kamm, MSW, LICSW

Biography

Abby is currently a Child Protection and Adoptions Case Manager in a county setting. Her role includes partnering with caregivers, coordinating services, and promoting child safety and well-being. When children are not able to be reunified with their birth parents, Abby supports children and families through permanency.

Address:
Sherburne County Health and Human Services
13880 Business Center Drive NW
Elk River, MN, 55330
 

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Jordan MacDonald, BA

Biography

Jordan MacDonald is a Children’s Mental Health and Post‑Permanency Social Worker in a county setting. Jordan’s work centers on helping families adjust to new permanency arrangements by providing services, support, and resources to those navigating recent adoptions or transfers of custody. Jordan offers trauma‑informed guidance while connecting families with therapeutic, educational, and community supports. 

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Kelsey Bonkoski

Biography

I greatly enjoy my current role working as a mental health professional. I practice in the outpatient setting both in person and virtually. I work with children, youth, and families with a variety of diagnoses. I have the most experience working with individuals impacted by trauma, and I am trained in EMDR. I have experience professionally working with individuals and families who have experienced adoption and foster care, and I also have personal connections to adoption as my sister is an adult adoptee. 

Kelsey Bonkoski

Alyssa Kittleson, MSW, LICSW, LADC

Biography

I am an outpatient therapist, working with children, adolescents, and young adults. I have 5+ years of experience as a therapist, and I have experience working in day treatment and intensive outpatient settings. I utilize a strengths-based, attachment-based, and trauma-focused lens when working with clients and their families. I highly value collaboration with clients and their families together, as well as professional collaboration and consultation.

Alyssa Kittleson

Deirdre Otis, MA, MSW, LGSW

Biography

Deirdre Otis is a licensed social worker with broad experience across child welfare, school-based, and healthcare settings. She earned her undergraduate degree from the College of Saint Benedict and her Master of Social Work from Saint Catherine University, where her academic focus included grief counseling and child welfare. She also completed a clinical internship utilizing the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT), strengthening her trauma-informed practice.

Deirdre Otis

Teresa Bina Zaffiro, MSW, LICSW

Biography

Hi! I am Teresa, a clinical social worker who is passionate about supporting adoptees, first/birth families and adoptive families. I am an adoptive parent with extensive experience supporting my child through relational trauma, transitions, neurodevelopment differences and sensory. I also have a long professional history of supporting family reunification, birth parent rights, open permanency set ups and culturally appropriate permanency outcomes.

Teresa Zaffiro

Joni Hillary, MSW, LGSW

Biography

HELP Program Specialist with over a decade of direct work experience in Child Welfare in five Midwestern states; specifically in foster care, adoption (foster care/ international/ domestic infant), foster care licensing, crisis intervention, and school social work. 

Address:
Foster Adopt Minnesota
2446 University Ave. W
Suite 140
Minneapolis, MN 55114

Joni Hillary

Lauren Lowe, MSW, LICSW

Biography

I am an outpatient therapist who is also a transracial adoptee. I work with populations ages 9-35 at this moment. I apply multi approaches and modalities such as ACT, DBT Skills, IFS, Interpersonal therapy, CBT/TF-CBT. I will be certified in PCIT fairly soon. I strive to be culturally competent and incorporate faiths of all backgrounds to support my clients. I also incorporate parents into my sessions with working with kids. I work with a lot of children and adults who have been been adopted or part of the child welfare system. I also will be trained in EMDR in the next few years.

Lauren Lowe

Wei "Rhouth" Zhou, MA, LPCC

She/Her/Hers
Biography

My vocational calling is to support the psychological and spiritual well-being of children, adolescents, and adults within adoptive, foster, and kinship family systems. My specialties involve working with individuals navigating adoption- and foster-related transitions, grief and loss, identity development, early and complex trauma, and attachment disruptions, as well as developmental differences and relational challenges. I approach this work with an understanding of how these experiences unfold across the lifespan and within the context of family and relational systems.

Wei Zhou

Merrily Young-Hye Sadlovsky, MSW, LICSW, LCSW

Biography

I am a Korean American transracial, transcultural, and transnational adoptee, a licensed clinical social worker, and the co-owner of a group mental health practice in Minneapolis. I also serve as the co-interim Director of Training and Clinical Supervision, supporting clinical trainees and pre-licensed therapists through developmentally informed supervision, training, and mentorship. In these roles, I intentionally balance direct clinical work with leadership and systems-level work to support both ethical practice and sustainable care.

Merrily Young-Hye Sadlovsky