KAAN 2024 Conference: Full Schedule

Join KAAN from June 21 – 23 for three days of keynotes, films, presentations, roundtables, performers, exhibits, support forums, and life-changing community. KAAN offers an Adoptee-Only track, as well as sessions for a general audience that are open to all. There are programs for adults aged 18+ and youth aged 8-17. Everyone is welcome, including adoptees, birth families, family members (adoptive parents, spouses/partners, siblings, and children of adoptees), service providers, and Korean Americans. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at tech@wearekaan.org.

Register now at tfec.org/kaan2024

Donate to KAAN
KAAN is a Project of The Foundation for Enhancing Communities, fiscal sponsor. This permits KAAN to operate as a nonprofit under TFEC’s 501(c)(3) designation. The official registration and financial information of The Foundation for Enhancing Communities may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, at 1-800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement. The Foundation for Enhancing Communities is registered in each state requiring such registration for charitable solicitation. Your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. Thank you!

4:00pm CDT

Conference Opening: KAAN Announcements

Speakers

Dr. Katie Bozek

Executive Director, KAAN

Katie Bozek, PhD is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She has worked in the mental health field for the past 20 years providing services that are aimed at helping people be able to be and show their authentic selves. She currently serves as the Executive Director of KAAN... Read More →

Friday June 21, 2024 4:00pm - 5:00pm CDT
Grand Ballrooms A and B

Mainstage Event

8:00am CDT

Mainstage: Adoptee Representation & Visibility in Research

Moving from community organizing in the 1990s, Drs. JaeRan Kim and Hollee McGinnis share their experiences conducting adoptee-centric research and the importance of adoptee representation in knowledge production and creation.

Moderators

Grace Newton

Grace Newton is a PhD student at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago. Her research seeks to understand the inequitable social forces that deny children the ability to live with their families and interrogate the interventions... Read More →

Speakers

JaeRan Kim

JaeRan Kim, Ph.D., MSW, (she/hers) is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Washington at Tacoma. JaeRan’s research is focused on facets of adoptees including race, parenthood, identity, and adoption displacement. JaeRan has... Read More →

Hollee McGinnis

Hollee A. McGinnis, MSW, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. In addition to being adopted from South Korea, she has almost 30 years of community organizing, practice, policy, and research experience on adoption, child welfare, and systems of alternative care (adoption, foster care, orphanages) in the U.S. and South Korea. Prior to her doctorate... Read More →

Saturday June 22, 2024 8:00am - 8:45am CDT
Grand Ballrooms A and B

Mainstage Event

12:45pm CDT

Mainstage: Critical Conversations About Adoption Media Representation

This panel will discuss the past, present, and future of adoption visibility and representation. Moderated by SunAh Laybourn, Patrick Armstrong, Kira Omans, and Nicholas Ramsey (all transracial adoptees of differing media career backgrounds), will examine current themes, trends, and stereotypes in adoptee portrayals, as well as discuss what changes we would like to see in upcoming work. Attendees will leave with actionable steps that we can take as a community to create the narratives we want to see.

Moderators

Dr. SunAh Laybourn

SunAh M Laybourn, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Memphis, an Affiliate Faculty Member for the Center for Workplace Diversity & Inclusion, Affiliate Faculty Member in the International and Global Studies Department, and a former Academic Research... Read More →

Speakers

Kira Omans

Kira Omans (she/her) is a transracial Chinese adoptee and SAG-AFTRA actor and martial artist. She appears in CSI: Vegas, The Gods II, Power Rangers: Rise of the Ninja, and What Happened to Suzy. Her voiceover credits include Girl From Nowhere (Netflix), Real Sports with Brian Gumbel... Read More →

Patrick Armstrong

Patrick Armstrong (he/him) is a transracial Asian American adoptee, born in South Korea and adopted to a white family in rural Indiana in 1990. He is the host of the award-winning podcasts The Janchi Show, a show about the Korean + Asian adoptee experience, and Conversation Piece... Read More →

Nicholas Ramsey (he/him)

KAAN AC, KAAN Speaker Coordinator, KAAN Tech

Nicholas Ramsey (he/him) has professionally produced and edited videos and podcasts for over 15 years. In terms of adoptee media, he is the producer-editor of Angela Tucker's podcasts. Born in Busan, South Korea, he was adopted in the 1980s, during the peak of international adoption... Read More →

Saturday June 22, 2024 12:45pm - 1:30pm CDT
Grand Ballrooms A and B

Mainstage Event

8:00pm CDT

Mainstage: Community Dinner Entertainment

Grace Clark is a musician with experience in opera, bluegrass, and folk music. Grace completed graduate school at Naropa University, where she studied somatic body psychotherapy and dance movement therapy. Grace's passion is to express herself through art.

Speakers

Grace Clark

Grace Clark is a Korean transracial adoptee living in Denver, Colorado. Grace is currently in graduate school at Naropa University, where she is studying Somatic Body Psychotherapy. Eventually, she plans to get her P.hD in clinical sexology, specifically examining paraphilia. Grace... Read More →

Saturday June 22, 2024 8:00pm - 9:30pm CDT
Grand Ballrooms A and B

Mainstage Event

11:00am CDT

Mainstage: Representation & Visibility Outside of KAAN

Join Sunday's mainstage to meet and learn more from representatives from NCRC and OKA.

Also, do you have questions about KAAN? Join us for an AMA-style Q&A where you can ask Ask KAAN Anything! The KAAN Planning Committee is here to tackle your burning questions. This session will use Mentimeter for questions. Submit questions in advance at Menti.com, and don't forget to upvote the ones that spark your interest. Join us and be part of the KAAN conversation.

Speakers

Dr. Katie Bozek

Executive Director, KAAN

Dr. SunAh Laybourn

Nathan Nowack

Co-Host, The Janchi Show

I am a transnational, transracial Korean Adoptee living in Denver, Colorado. I am a dad of 3, avid lego collector, golfer, and co-host on a podcast called The Janchi Show. I am in reunion with my 6 biological siblings. I serve on the KAAN advisory council as well as the engagement... Read More →

Amanda Cho

Amanda (Assalone) Cho, PhD, is a Korean American transracial and transnational adoptee in Atlanta who is actively involved in civil rights and advocacy organizations that support communities of color, particularly Asian Americans and Asian American adoptees. She is the Policy Manager... Read More →

Nicholas Ramsey (he/him)

KAAN AC, KAAN Speaker Coordinator, KAAN Tech

Sunday June 23, 2024 11:00am - 12:15pm CDT
Grand Ballrooms A and B

Mainstage Event

12:15pm CDT

Mainstage: Weekend Reflections and Next Steps: Katie Bozek, Executive Director

Speakers

Dr. Katie Bozek

Executive Director, KAAN

Sunday June 23, 2024 12:15pm - 12:30pm CDT
Grand Ballrooms A and B

Mainstage Event