Meet the Illien Team

ANNA BELLE ILLIEN: Executive Director

Founder and administrator of the day-to-day operations of the Agency in accordance with the Rules and Regulations for Child-Placing Agencies of the Georgia Department of Human Resources. Also serves as the President of the Corporation. Foreign Program Director for Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, India, Nepal, Thailand, Brazil, Chile, and Venezuela, from October 1998 to present. Executive Director of Williams-Illien Adoptions, Inc., Memphis, Tennessee from April 1993 to June 1998. Founder of Illien Adoptions International, Ltd. in Atlanta, Georgia in 1982, served as the Executive Director until 1993. PhD studies at University of California at Berkley, California, and Columbia University in New York City, NY; MA from Middlebury College School of Languages in Middlebury, Vermont; BS in French from Columbia University, New York City, NY; Diploma of Nursing from Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland. She is a Registered Nurse, fluent in French, some Spanish. Widely traveled all over the world. Single parent of three adopted children, two from India, one from USA. Twenty-six years of experience in the adoption field as Executive Director of an international adoption agency.

SARAH BRITTINGHAM: Director of International Programs

Responsible for development of adoption programs abroad and management of the Agency’s programs in Guatemala, India, Ukraine and South America. She has traveled widely throughout the world and relates well to people of different cultures. Sarah works closely with adoptive families and with the Agency’s partners abroad. She assists families to prepare their dossier for the foreign court and keeps them informed of the status of their case. She assists families in all aspects of travel coordination and liaison of all parties involved with the adoptive family. Responsible for ensuring that adoptive families comply with the post-placement requirements of the country their child comes from and ensuring that post placement reports are filed on time in the adopted child’s country of origin. Sarah has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, with a major in Modern Languages and Literatures (French and Spanish). She is fluent in Spanish and French and is proficient in Portuguese.

BRETT TROUGHTON DUPREE: Ethiopia Program Coordinator, Nepal Program Coordinator & Hague Compliance Coordinator

Brett has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Georgia, and she is a graduate of Loyola University School of Law, New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and has been a practicing attorney since 2006. As an attorney with an immigration law firm in Atlanta, she obtained employment-based immigrant and nonimmigrant visas for foreign nationals and their families. Brett also has experience working with families involved in the adoption process. While in New Orleans, she worked with a law firm handling domestic adoptions, and her responsibilities focused on ensuring the adoption process met the needs and expectations of birthmothers. Additionally, Brett has worked and volunteered with various nonprofit organizations helping children and families. As a student practitioner with the Metropolitan Battered Women’s Program in New Orleans, she provided legal assistance to survivors of domestic abuse seeking protective orders against their abusers. Additionally, she worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s International Division in Washington, D.C. preparing training materials for use in educating attorneys nationwide about adjudicating/litigating international parental abduction cases in the United States. Brett has volunteered with various other organizations including the Sexual Assault Center of North East Georgia, AIDSLaw of Louisiana, and received training as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA).

MALETIA WARD: Administrative Assistant

Assistant to the Executive Director to ensure that the policies and procedures of the Agency are carried out. Responsible for keeping correspondence, records, bookkeeping and client files in good order. Liaison with Agency's clients to keep them informed of the status of their case and to explain the Agency's programs to prospective adoptive parents. Maletia has many years of experience working with children and has excellent communication skills. She also has several years of experience in office work, is familiar with all aspects of the Agency's work, and has been with this agency since 1999.

CHRISTINE DEERING: International Adoption Social Worker

Owner and founder of USAdopt, Christine is responsible for provision of pre-and post-adoption social work services and adoption home studies to prospective adoptive parents living outside the USA. She has extensive experience in providing home study services to a wide variety of families who are adopting from different countries, as well as those who seek a US domestic adoption. She is based in England and provides services across Europe where she has been a home study provider since 1990. Christine can work with families anywhere in the world.  She gained her Master of Social Work Degree in 1983 from Arizona State University and is licensed in the District of Columbia. She also practices social work in England (GSCC registered) and in Ireland (NSWBQ registered). She was awarded the National Assocation of Social Workers (NASW) Advanced Diploma in Social Work in 1993. Christine is specialized in Training and Assessment and has taught and supervised trainees in Social Work, Medicine, Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Counseling. She has also served three terms as President of the NASW International branch. Christine has recently joined the staff of Illien, although she has been associated with the Agency for many years.

http://www.us-adopt.com/

MICHELE HENRY: Director of Humanitarian Aid and Program Development

Michele is a graduate of Emory University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and English. She was a National Urban Fellow, earning her Master’s in Public Administration, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer where she taught secondary school in Botswana, President of the Board of Directors for Family Health Enterprise, former Executive Director of an adult literacy organization and a former Director of Volunteer Services where she expanded volunteer membership 150% and increased diversity by 70%. She is responsible for raising money and awareness to assist prospective parents to adopt HIV/Special Needs Children; Women’s Empowerment Programs to assist impoverished families; and Education Projects to assist children living within their community. 

ELIZABETH ILLIEN: Home Study and Post Placement Caseworker

Elizabeth has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, with a major in Psychology. She is fluent in French and has traveled throughout the world and experienced many different cultures. She was adopted from India when she was three months old and has been involved with adoption in some way or another all of her life, as she grew up watching her mother, Anna Belle Illien, interact with adoptive families and children. She started working for the Agency in 2002 and has moved into various positions since then. At present, Elizabeth is working part time as the Home Study and Post Placement Caseworker.

HONORÉ M. DESSALINES WASHINGTON: Assistant Coordinator of International Programs

Honoré assists the Executive Director and Director and Coordinator of International Programs with program development and daily administrative tasks.  He is also fluent in French and Spanish and is proficient in Arabic, Hungarian, and Portuguese.  He has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America, learning about cultural perspectives on a social and linguistic level.

Recently completing his studies at the Political Science Institute of Lille in France, he is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs, focusing on European and Latin American Relations.  He has worked as a high school teacher for two years in France with children from various backgrounds.  As an activist, he has worked to promote social justice and equality for the Hispanic community and has volunteered to empower Latino youth in education in Atlanta, Georgia.

DEBBIE THORNTON: Assistant Coordinator of Ethiopia Program, Assistant Coordinator of Outgoing Cases

Debbie has a B.S. in Elementary Education. She is a certified teacher and she also has her ESOL endorsement (English for Speakers of Other Languages). Debbie taught for seven and a half years at a Title I school. She had students from many different backgrounds including foster and adoptive homes. She has dealt with abused and homeless children as well. Debbie helped to raise money to help some of those struggling families in need.   Debbie taught regular education with inclusion.

Debbie and her husband have a daughter that was adopted domestically. She is the light of their lives! She says her family finally feels whole with their daughter in it.

JOY McCARNAN

Joy has an B.A. English (minor in Creative Writing) and an M.A. Theology. Most of her professional experience has been in communications and education. She has enjoyed teaching in unconventional capacities (like Honoré, Joy lived a year in France for TEFL to French high-schoolers; and she was an adult literacy/ESL teacher in the States). Before coming to Illien, Joy was a curriculum editor, web content manager, and coordinated production of web-based training and distance learning courses. 

When she lived in Illinois, Joy was a certified CASA/guardian ad litem. Her desire to invest herself in helping orphans and adoptive families was only compounded during her recent trip to visit orphanages, street and HIV outreaches in Ethiopia (June '09) and a trip to post-earthquake Haiti (March '10) where she also visited orphans. Joy is especially passionate about children whose lives have been drastically changed by HIV. She will be working with medical and HIV advocacy experts to develop web-based training materials for prospective parents of adopted children with HIV. She is also coordinating Illien's Waiting Children Program.