Our Team

Our Team

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As a grassroots non-profit, Adoptees for Justice relies upon our incredible volunteers, members, and staff. Thank you to our volunteers and members who join, shape, and fight for just and humane adoption, immigration, and restorative justice systems! Adoptees for Justice is an intercountry adoptee-led organization. Our members are adoptees with and without citizenship as well as parents, children, and siblings of adoptees. We are committed to being led by those most impacted. Below, meet just a few of the folks who are integral to the operations, mission, and strategy of Adoptees for Justice. 

Meet Our Team

* = A4J staff member or a person whose employer has allocated time for work with Adoptees for Justice.

** = Core Volunteer or Committee Lead.

Anissa Druesedow*, she/hers

Impacted Adoptee Lead

Kristopher Larsen*, he/him

Advocacy Co-Lead

Volunteer Coordinator & Outreach Lead*

Anissa is an activist, mother, and American adoptee without citizenship. Adopted from Panama by an American military family, Anissa was deported in 2006 when her daughter, Vanessa, was only 12 years old. She is fighting for the Adoptee Citizenship Act from Panama, and shares her story in order to educate others about the issues faced by adoptees without citizenship. As the Impacted Adoptee Lead and one of three A4J staff members, Anissa organizes adoptees without citizenship in the Impacted Adoptee Committee. 

Kristopher is an adoptee from Saigon, Vietnam who escaped during the evacuation of Saigon in 1975 during US Military Operation Babylift due to the imminent Communist takeover of South Vietnam. Raised in Alaska, he attended the University of Alaska Anchorage and was recruited as a Systems Engineer to design a local bank’s fiber infrastructure. Kristopher is the former Director of IT and Apprenticeship Opportunities for the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. He worked with local tech companies and disenfranchised communities to educate, train, and prepare communities of color for fair opportunities in the IT Sector. He has also taught robotics and code block programming to high-school students. Kristopher sits on several Boards that stem around Social Justice, Education and is the former post-prison employment advisor for Seattle City Council. As an Advocacy Co-Lead and one of three A4J staff members, Kristopher believes in the organization’s mission to “Educate, empower, and organize transracial and transnational adoptee communities to achieve a just and humane adoption, immigration, and restorative justice systems.”

We are looking to fill this paid position. 

View the job description here.

Email your complete application to a4j_board[at]adopteesforjustice.org by January 15 to apply!

photo of Rebecca Hall smiling at the camera. Rebecca is wearing clear glasses frames, a grey shirt, and a blue jacket.

Ann Berdahl*,

NAKASEC Development Coordinator

Michelle Liang*,

NAKASEC Policy and Communications Manager

Rebecca Hall**, she/hers

Social Media Manager

Rebecca (she/her) is studying to get her master’s in Occupational Therapy at Ithaca College. She has been a speaker on two adoptee panels on campus and a part of an adoptee club. She has been a volunteer with Adoptees for Justice on the Education Committee and helps run the A4J social media accounts.

* = A4J staff member or a person whose employer has allocated time for work with Adoptees for Justice.

** = Core Volunteer or Committee Lead.

A4J Board of Directors

An Asian American woman smiles. She is wearing black and has shiny black mid-length hair.
An Asian American woman with mid-length black hair gives a hint of a smile into the camera. She is wearing lipstick and a dark sleeveless blouse.
Daniel is looking at the camera, her head is tilted to the side, smiling. They are wearing a white v-neck t-shirt, tortoise-shell glasses, and matte purple lipstick. His hair is pulled back and messy.

Becky Belcore**, she/hers

Fundraising Co-Lead

Becky Belcore joined NAKASEC’s staff in January 2017.  Prior to NAKASEC, Becky was an independent consultant for community-based organizations and foundations.  She also worked at Woods Fund Chicago, the Korean American Resource & Cultural Center (KRCC), and as a nurse and a union organizer. She is a board member of Adoptees for Justice and HANA Center. Becky enjoys spending time with her daughter and identifies as a Korean adoptee.

Cori McMillan, she/her

Cori is an intercountry adoptee from Korea and lives in Chicago. She is currently an independent consultant with a diverse background in education,the corporate world, and progressive community-based non-profits. Cori has been supporting adoptee rights for over 15 years and has helped to mobilize efforts towards citizenship for all adoptees. She believes that we are all interconnected and must strive towards solidarity for intersectional justice.

Daniel Ayoade Yoon, she/they

Daniel Ayoade Yoon (she/they) is a non-binary, transnational and transracial adoptee.  Daniel was born in Korea, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee representing cash-poor folks accused of violating bureaucratic rules made by politicians.  Joined A4J in January 2019, and nominated to the Board by membership in mid-2020.  She can be contacted at danielayoadeyoon@gmail.com.

An Asian American woman smiles in front of a mountain, green scenery, and a blue sky. She is wearing a white jacket.
An Asian American woman with mid-length black hair and lipstick smiles into the camera. She stands in front of lush green foliage and is wearing a black tank top.
Photo of Taneka smiling in front of a grey backdrop. She is wearing a grey and black sleeveless dress with large diamond-shaped dangling earrings and long dark brown hair, down and slightly wavy.

Emily Kessel**, she/hers

Board Chair, Advocacy Co-Lead

Emma Wexler, she/hers

Board Secretary, Outreach & Communications Coordinator, Lead Social Media Manager, Onboarding Coordinator

Taneka Hye Wol Jennings, she/hers

Emily Kessel – Chair (Arlington, VA) is a Korean American adoptee and Minnesota native and lived in Korea as a Fulbright grantee and M.A. student for a Language Flagship Program based in Hawai’i. She works for a federal government agency in Washington D.C. on Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs. Previously she worked in the nonprofit sector, and is currently an Executive Committee Board Member for NAKASEC. Ms. Kessel has been involved with the Adoptee Citizenship Act work since 2015 and is a co-founder of Adoptees For Justice. 

Emma is a transnational & transracial Vietnamese adoptee who received citizenship by luck. Raised in Twin Cities area of Minnesota, Emma joined Adoptees for Justice in February 2019 because she believes in citizenship for all and intersectional approaches to fighting for justice on many fronts. She is excited to help educate, organize, and empower her communities to fight for their rights, representation, and multi-dimensional justice in solidarity with others. She recently graduated in May 2020 and lives in Providence, Rhode Island. Currently, Emma is A4J’s Outreach & Communications Coordinator, lead Social Media Manager, Onboarding Coordinator, and serves on its Board of Directors.

Taneka Hye Wol Jennings is a transracial Korean adoptee with citizenship. She currently resides in Chicago, where she serves as the Deputy Director of Programs for the immigrant rights and service organization HANA Center. Taneka volunteers actively in her community and serves in a number of advisory capacities for local, national and international groups. As someone who has been impacted by unjust policies and systems, she believes in the power of being rooted in the community, building new narratives together, and advancing solutions that bring about a more just and loving future for all people.