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National Council For Adoption Celebrates 2019 Adoption Award Honorees

November 14, 2019 – Alexandria, VA – Since 1987, National Council For Adoption’s Adoption Hall of Fame has recognized the outstanding commitment, service, and sacrifice of those who are furthering the cause of adoption.

This year, NCFA is proud to induct Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania into the Adoption Hall of Fame in recognition of several policy initiatives which are creating a brighter future for our nation’s adopted children. Also being honored at this year's event are NCFA's Friend of Adoption Award recipients Representative Jim Langevin of Rhode Island and Lola Reinsch, as well as 2019’s Excellence in Adoption Media Award honoree, the HBO original documentary FOSTER, which will be accepted by filmmaker Deborah Oppenheimer.

The Adoption Hall of Fame is supported by Silver sponsor America’s Christian Credit Union, Bronze sponsor Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, and the National Beer Wholesalers Association.

More information can be found at AdoptionCouncil.org/AHOF. For inquiries on covering the ceremony on November 14th in Washington, DC, or for official photos, contact Lauren Koch at lkoch@adoptioncouncil.org. A list of past recipients can be found at AdoptionCouncil.org/Awards.

Congressman Mike Kelly

Adoption Hall of Fame

National Council For Adoption’s 2019 Adoption Hall of Fame inductee Representative Mike Kelly is a passionate advocate for children and families in the foster care system and adoption process. Elected to represent Pennsylvania’s 16th Congressional District in 2010, he has shown an inspiring commitment to adopted children and their families. In addition to advocating for improved intercountry adoption policies and practices and working to successfully reinstate the the Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program, Rep. Kelly's leadership was instrumental in preserving the adoption tax credit during 2017's tax reform. The original draft of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act had eliminated this credit, which is vital for adoptive families across the country. Representative Kelly rallied grassroots advocates and his peers in Congress to ensure that the adoption tax credit would continue to help adopted children and their families thrive.

After graduating from Butler High School in 1966, Representative Kelly attended the University of Notre Dame on a football and academic scholarship, before moving back to his hometown of Butler, Pennsylvania, where he went to work in the family automobile business. Today, his work has grown the business into a chain of dealerships that employs more than 100 people. He and his wife, a retired elementary school teacher, have founded several charitable enterprises to provide educational opportunities for young people in western Pennsylvania. They are the parents of four and the grandparents of ten.

Congressman Jim Langevin

Friend of Adoption

Rep. Jim Langevin has been one of Congress’s most consistent champions for youth in adoption and foster care. Since his election in 2000, he has authored bills to help provide pre- and post-adoptive services to adoptive families, with a particular focus on mental health, and to protect the legal rights of foster and adopted children.

Prior to his election to represent Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District, Rep. Langevin served as Rhode Island Secretary of State, in the state House of Representatives, and as secretary to Rhode Island’s 1986 Constitutional Convention. A graduate of Rhode Island College, he holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Lola Reinsch

Friend of Adoption

Lola C. Reinsch is President, Owner, and CEO of E.G. Reinsch Companies, owning and managing rental apartment communities and other real estate entities in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. Ms. Reinsch is a longtime supporter of National Council For Adoption’s foster care programs, helping NCFA create strong, stable homes for children adopted through foster care.

Committed to giving back, Ms. Reinsch, through her Reinsch Pierce Family Foundation, opened the Reinsch Center for Breast Health at Virginia Hospital Center and the Reinsch Center for Campus Reform at The Leadership Institute; designed and built The Reinsch Library at Marymount University; and supported the Arena Stage Costume Shop, serving regional theaters. She holds Silver status with the Tiffany Circle of American Red Cross and is a member of the James Smithson Association’s John Quincy Adams Circle of the Smithsonian Institution.

Ms. Reinsch is a graduate of Purdue University and resides in McLean, VA. She has two married children: her daughter, a journalist and attorney in Australia and her son, a commercial architect, musician, and businessman in Northern Virginia who joined her firm.

FOSTER

Excellence in Adoption Media

With one in eight American children suffering a confirmed case of neglect or abuse by age 18, there are currently more than 400,000 children in foster care in the U.S., a number that continues to grow each year.

Drawing on unprecedented access, FOSTER explored the often-misunderstood world of foster care through compelling stories from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, the largest county child welfare agency in the country.

The film’s creative team, including writer-director Mark Jonathan Harris visited courtrooms, foster homes, juvenile centers, hospitals and the neighborhoods of Los Angeles to tell moving stories of the foster care system in the United States. The campaign around the film has included a 10-state screening series, with accompanying resources provided for more than 4,000 practitioners working across the system.

Accepting the award is producer Deborah Oppenheimer, who previously produced the Academy Award-winning documentary, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport.

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ABOUT NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR ADOPTION:

Founded in 1980, National Council For Adoption (NCFA) is a global adoption advocacy nonprofit that promotes a culture of adoption through education, research, legislative action, and collaboration. As the authoritative voice for adoption, NCFA’s areas of focus include domestic infant adoption, adoption and permanency outcomes for youth in foster care, and intercountry adoption. Passionately committed to the belief that every child deserves to thrive in a nurturing, permanent family, NCFA serves children, birth parents, adopted individuals, adoptive families, and adoption professionals. In addition, we work tirelessly to educate U.S. and foreign government officials and policymakers, members of the media, and all those in the general public with an interest in adoption.

For more information, visit www.AdoptionCouncil.org.