American Adoption Congress: Educating, Empowering, Evolving Donate

Meet Your AAC Board

The American Adoption Congress 2020 - 2021 Board of Directors
 
Executive Committee

Matthew Naylor - President and Puerto Rico Liaison - Palm Springs, CA


 

Matthew Naylor is a California Adoptee and first learned of half of his adoption story in 2006 and the other half  by attending an AAC Conference in 2014 and learning about DNA that has lead to his Puerto Rican ancestry.      Matthew is the founder of the non-profit Marquee Academy of Performing Arts – serving under privilege music lessons as well as a board member for Well in the Desert serving the homeless issues in his community.          
                                         
Matthew is developing personal relationships in the  Puerto Rican Community with many that have been adopted since first finding out his ancestry.  He will be speaking out and helping in the needs  to this large Puerto Rican          group. 

Roberta MacDonald - Vice President/Website Administrator and Historian/Archivist/Current Membership Chair- Pensacola, FL
Roberta MacDonald is an adoptee, and has just celebrated her 20th year being an AAC member. She was a former board member and held the positions of AAC Vice President, membership chair, event registrar and website administrator.  Roberta came back to the board in 2019 as Vice President.  She was the founder of the North Carolina Coalition for Adoption Reform before moving to Florida.  Roberta was reunited with her birth mother in 1997, and has been an advocate for adoption legislation since 2000. She along with others helped to implement a CI program in North Carolina for adoptees, adoptees of deceased birth parents, siblings and continues to assist those in North Carolina to obtain a clean bill for access to original birth certificates.
Shawna Hodgson - Secretary/Social Media and Volunteer Coordinator - Kingwood, TX



Shawna is a Texas born adoptee and fifth generation Texan. At age 40, she identified her birth family using DNA testing and shortly after, reunited with her birth parents and two siblings.

Shawna became active in adoptee rights/OBC access legislation in Texas in 2014 after her experience with the adoption agency that facilitated her adoption. 

In 2015, Shawna co founded the grassroots organization Adoptee Support Advocates based in her hometown of Houston, Texas. In 2017, Shawna co founded Equality 4 Adoptees, designed to network with other adoptee rights groups around the country. Once a month Shawna is a co leader of an in person search and support group for adoptees and birth parents in Houston, TX.

In addition to her adoptee rights advocacy, Shawna is a trained and certificated mediator, including advanced family law mediation and a member of the Texas Association of Mediators.

Her training makes her particularly adept in communicating with others, and her heartfelt candor encourages others to listen. This has been invaluable while communicating with legislators and their staff regarding OBC access and adoption reform.

Leslie Livingston - Treasurer/Marketing Director - North Yarmouth, ME

Leslie Livingston is an adoptive mother of her son who was born in Cambodia.  She holds a B.S. in Communication Disorders, an M.S. in Family Studies, and has spent her entire career working on behalf of children and families, first as a special educator in the public schools and then as a nonprofit administrator in agencies supporting children and families. Leslie has also been adjunct faculty in the Early Childhood Dept. of Kaplan University and has a private parent coaching practice.
 
Leslie has served on several non-profit boards and on the Maine State Early Care and Education Committee.  She was instrumental in getting legislation passed to benefit children and families while serving on this committee.  Leslie was also a national trainer for Healthy Families America home visiting program.
 
In addition to adopting her son, Leslie has several family members and friends who are members of the triad including a niece and nephew who are donor conceived. The health and well-being of all is near and dear to her heart.

AAC Chair Positions

Tim Monti-Wohlpart - Legislative Chair / NY State Representative - Brooklyn, NY


 

Tim Monti-Wohlpart is a New York born adoptee, in reunion since 1998.  In 2002 and 2003, he served as Vice President and Legislative Liaison for New York Statewide Adoption Reform. At that time, he lobbied for unrestricted original birth certificate access for adult adoptees.  In 2015, he began a grass-roots effort to restore the unrestricted access bill after it was changed in June 2015. His public petition, supporting that effort, has been provided to key legislators, Governor Cuomo and the Department of Health. Tim joined the AAC Legislative Council in 2016.  He holds a B.S. in marketing, with minor in political science, and a Master of Education.  He lives in Brooklyn.

Thomas Rector - Financial Committee Chair - McKinleyville, CA



Thomas Rector’s experience as National Presenter, businessman, Open Adoption panelist, Foster Kinship Trainer, CASA, and the father of five has shaped new insights on how memories, environment, and human development shape our experiences and decisions. 
 
He is a CEO, national speaker and presenter on BioSocial Cognition theory, and founder of Accrescent Institute, as well as the former Executive Director for CASA of Del Norte and the current Vice President of the NFPA Board of Directors. 
 
He has studied a wide range of topics over the last 20 years in the fields of neuroscience, language development, philosophy, psychology,  biology and genetics.