KAAN 2025: Full Schedule

The KAAN 2025 Conference will take place at The Grand Hyatt in Atlanta, GA, on June 20-22. The theme this year is Growth and Change. As always, we offer an adoptee-only track alongside our general breakout sessions, which are open to all. We also offer programs for adults and youth (ages 8-17). All are welcome, including adoptees, birth families, family members (adoptive parents, spouses/partners, siblings and children of adoptees), service providers, and Korean Americans. We look forward to seeing you there!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at tech@wearekaan.org.

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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!

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8:00am EDT

Continental Breakfast

Sunday June 22, 2025 8:00am - 9:30am EDT

Grand Ballroom A & B

Sunday June 22, 2025 8:00am - 9:30am EDT
Grand Ballroom A & B

Meals

9:45am EDT

Bringing About a Global Adoption Movement*

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT

Highland 4 &5 (Lobby)

This lecture is about my journey in discovering that my identity was switched with that of a child who likely passed away at my Korean Adoption Agency, KSS - and how my years long investigation into my and my likely twin’s switch cases led to the creation of the 2024 FRONTLINE / AP documentary “South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning”. Ultimately, my story is about swimming upward from the bottom of an ocean of gaslighting, and working for years to help birth a global level of consciousness about Korean Adoption corruption through the FRONTLINE / AP documentary and related international articles.

This session will also be held on Saturday at 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM.

Speakers

Rebecca Kimmel

Rebecca Kimmel (born 1975) was adopted through Korea Social Service. Since 2018, she has been investigating her own switch case, and since 2020 she has been investigating her likely twin’s switch case. Rebecca’s investigation into these cases led her to become a contributor to... Read More →

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT
Highland 4 &5 (Lobby)

Adoptee-Only Session, Repeat Session

9:45am EDT

Keeping the Peace

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT

Highland 3 (Lobby)

Has your relationship with your adoptive family changed as you’ve aged and matured? What challenges or obstacles have you faced in relating to them over time? How have you navigated that? We invite you to hear our stories as adopted Koreans who are working through these dynamics on a daily basis, and engage in a discussion about reconciling these feelings as our own identities and definitions of family change. All adult adoptees are welcome to attend this session, however, we hope to hear specifically from those who are actively in contact with their adoptive families.

Speakers

Kerry Bondy

Kerry was born in South Korea and adopted to a Midwestern suburb in the US. Her involvement in the Korean adoptee community began in 2001 after her first trip back to Korea on a Motherland tour. Since then, she has participated on adoptee panels, volunteered at and co-facilitated... Read More →

Chris Wodicka

Chris Wodicka (he/him) lives in Philadelphia, PA, where he is pursuing a PhD in social welfare, with a research focus on U.S. tax and social policy. Since 2022, he has served on the board of Hamkae Center (formerly NAKASEC Virginia), a nonprofit organization in Virginia that organizes... Read More →

Katie McLemore

Katie McLemore is a transracial Korean adoptee, raised and currently living in Minnesota.

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT
Highland 3 (Lobby)

Adoptee-Only Session

9:45am EDT

Taking Action: AAPI Heritage Month Organizing*

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT

Cascade (Lower lobby)

Inspired by the “More Than Enough: Adoptees Leading Asian American Spaces” mainstage and thinking about how you start organizing in your own local community? Join this hands-on workshop to get inspired and take action! Learn from three transracial adoptees who organized AAPI Heritage Month events in Memphis, Cincinnati, and Albany. They’ll share valuable insights, practical tools, and strategies to help you plan an impactful initiative—no matter where you are or how you define community. Bring your idea and leave with a solid plan to bring your vision to life.

This session will also be held on Saturday at 9:30 - 10:45 AM.

Speakers

Rachel Hye Youn Rupright

Rachel is a Korean adoptee and adoptive parent. She lives in Albany, NY with her family, where she administers a small healthcare foundation.

Caitlin Jee Hae Behle

Caitlin is a multidisciplinary storyteller based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Caitlin was born in Korea and grew up in Kentucky as a transnational adoptee, an upbringing that instilled a lifelong curiosity about the connections between people, places, and the systems that shape their lives... Read More →

SunAh Laybourn

SunAh Laybourn, PhD is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Memphis, author of "Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants" (NYU Press 2024), and TedX speaker. Frustrated by her hometown's lack of acknowledgment of their API community and inspired by... Read More →

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT
Cascade (Lower lobby)

Adoptee-Only Session, Repeat Session

9:45am EDT

The Adoptee Consciousness Memoir Writing Workshop*

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT

Ivy (Lobby)

Writing can be an important tool to process the impact of adoption. The Adoptee Consciousness model, developed by Susan Branco, JaeRan Kim, Grace Newton, Stephanie Kripa Cooper-Lewter, and Paula O’Loughlin in 2022, gave adoptees a language and framework to understand the five stages of adoptee awareness: status quo, rupture, dissonance, expansiveness, and forgiveness and activism. Using those “five touchstones within the spiral” as writing prompts, the workshop facilitators will guide participants to write a memoir in poetry and prose of their own adoptee journey of growth and change.

This session will also be held on Saturday at 4:15 - 5:30 PM.

Speakers

Alice Stephens

Born in Korea, Alice Stephens was among the first wave of intercountry, transracial adoptees. Author of the novel, Famous Adopted People (Unnamed Press, 2018), she is also a book reviewer, essayist, short story writer, facilitator of the Adoptee Voices Writing Group, member of the... Read More →

Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello

Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello is the author of Hour of the Ox (University of Pittsburgh Press), winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. She and E.J. Koh co-translated Yi Won’s The World’s Lightest Motorcycle (Zephyr Press), which received the Grand Prize from the Literature... Read More →

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT
Ivy (Lobby)

Adoptee-Only Session, Repeat Session

9:45am EDT

Therapy: A Beginner's Road Map

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT

Highland 1 & 2 (Lobby)

Connecting in adoptee communities like KAAN is essential to knowing that we are not alone. In fact, we are part of a tribe. And yet, there are limits to what volunteer-led organizations’ can do to support adoptees when it comes to complex struggles of mental and emotional health. Join two adoptee therapists in a safe, non-judgmental space for a discussion on when to seek professional therapeutic help. The presenters will share their experiences as therapists and provide attendees with resources for connecting to adoption-related, therapeutic supports.

Speakers

Nicole Sheppard

Nicole Sheppard, MA, LPCC, is a mindfulness-based, adoption-competent psychotherapist and board-approved supervisor based in Minneapolis, MN. She was a project manager of a MN Department of Health-funded mental health and suicide assessment of the Korean adoptee community. Nicole... Read More →

Sarah Ahn Lentz

Sarah Ahn Lentz was adopted through ECWS in 1979 and raised in Minneapolis. She currently lives in Saint Paul with her teenager and two cats. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist and clinical supervisor who enjoys working with people who want to explore their identities... Read More →

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT
Highland 1 & 2 (Lobby)

Adoptee-Only Session

9:45am EDT

Beyond Birth Search: Heritage Travel & Identity*

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT

Library (Lobby)

Heritage travel goes beyond the birth search; it has transformative effects on an adoptee’s identity. We’ll explore these impacts through a blend of storytelling and discussion. First, we’ll share our own personal journeys. Then, we’ll invite participant engagement, incorporate quotes from past travelers, and review recent findings on the benefits of heritage travel.

This session will also be held on Friday at 1:45 - 3:15 PM.

Speakers

Liz Kwon

Liz Kwon was born in Seoul, South Korea and adopted to a family in Wisconsin. Liz has been involved in the KAD community since she started attending culture camps at age 5.Liz has been on panels with Adoption Mosaic (Adoptees & Parenting, Adoptees & Adoptive Family Estrangement) and... Read More →

Tanya Kaanta

Tanya, is a Korean adoptee and former academic with a PhD in Sociology and an MS in Student Affairs. With 20 years in higher education, she supported students, taught sociology, and conducted research focused on education and adoptee identity. In 1999, Tanya returned to Korea to live... Read More →

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT
Library (Lobby)

Fishbowl Session (Adoptee-Centered But Non-Adoptees May Attend To Listen), Repeat Session

9:45am EDT

Community Conversation: Life Course of Adoption*

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT

Buckhead BR 2 (Lower lobby)

A substantial body of research has focused on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on adult mental and physical health; however, little research has quantified this relationship among people who experienced adoption. Findings from the community embedded project “Mapping the Life Course of Adoption” study involving a national survey (N= 464) of U.S. adoptees (18+) will be presented illuminating the relationship between childhood adversities, trauma, adult stressors, and mental and physical health.

This session will also be held on Friday at 12:00 - 1:30 PM.

Speakers

Hollee McGinnis

Hollee A. McGinnis, MSW, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at VCU. Dr. McGinnis has almost 30 years of community organizing, practice, policy, and research experience relating to adoption and child welfare. Her work centers the lived experiences of individuals raised in adoptive families... Read More →

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT
Buckhead BR 2 (Lower lobby)

General Session (Open To All Attendees), Repeat Session

9:45am EDT

The Violence of Love: Rethinking Adoption*

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT

Buckhead BR 1 (Lower lobby)

With the theme of “growth and change,” I would present on my concept of “the violence of love” in transnational adoptions (from my forthcoming book, The Violence of Love: Race, Family, and Adoption in the United States, 2025). Even though love by individuals, agencies, and the nation has fueled transnational adoptions, I will discuss the ways violence has been attached to them in complex ways. I would provide brief examples of how love and violence inform “positive adoption language,” federal adoption legislation, transnational adoption policy, and heritage summer camps for adoptees.

This session will also be held on Saturday at 4:15 - 5:30 PM.

Speakers

Kit Myers

Kit Myers is an assistant professor in the Department of History & Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Merced. He is the author of The Violence of Love: Race, Adoption, and Family in the United States (University of California Press, 2025), which is available... Read More →

Sunday June 22, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am EDT
Buckhead BR 1 (Lower lobby)

General Session (Open To All Attendees), Repeat Session