Meet the Illien Team

ANNA BELLE ILLIEN: Executive Director

Founder of Illien Adoptions International, Inc. in 1982. She is the 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 Services and in accordance with the Council on Accreditation for accreditation under the Hague Adoption Convention. She also serves as the President of the Corporation. Since the Agency's beginning in 1982 she has opened programs and/or assisted with intercountry adoptions from India, Nepal, Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Paraguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Bolivia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia and to France and the Netherlands. She served as the Executive Director of Illien Adoptions International, Ltd. from 1982 to 1993, She served as the Executive Director of Williams-Illien Adoptions, Inc., Memphis, Tennessee from April 1993 to June 1998. She returned to Georgia as Executive Director of Illien Adoptions International, Inc. from 1998 to the present. Her academic background is as follows: PhD studies at University of California at Berkeley, 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; Diplome de la langue francaise from the Sorbonne in Paris, France, Diploma of Nursing from Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland. She is a Registered Nurse, fluent in French, some Spanish. She taught French at Columbia University in New York City, NY at the University of California at Berkeley, CA, and at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. Served a consultant for using the arts for urban revitalization in Washington, DC. Atlanta, GA Newport News, VA and Flint, MI. Worked for Central Atlanta Progress in Atlanta, GA as Marketing Director. Served ten years as the Director of Galerie Illien, an international art gallery in Atlanta, GA. Received Governor's Award in the Arts from Governor Jimmy Carter. Graduated form Leadership Atlanta. Graduated from Leadership Georgia.. Widely traveled all over the world. Single parent of three adopted children, two from India, one from USA. Currently serves on the Board of Directors of PeaceActs, Inc and. Family Ties, Inc. in Gainesville, GA. CFO and member of the Board of Directors of Illien Foundation for Children, Inc. and founder of Field of Dreams, Inc. Twenty-nine years of experience in the adoption field as Executive Director of Illien Adoptions International, Inc. a 501(c)(3) international adoption agency.

BRETT TROUGHTON DUPREE: Ethiopia Program Coordinator, Nepal Program Coordinator, and 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).

MICHELE HENRY: Coordinator of India Adoption Program, 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. 

HONORÉ M. DESSALINES WASHINGTON:  Coordinator of International Programs, Ecuador Program Coordinator

Honoré assists the Executive Director 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.

After completing his studies at the Political Science Institute of Lille in France, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs, focusing on European and Latin American Relations.  He 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 who was adopted domestically. She is the light of their lives! She says her family finally feels whole with their daughter in it.

JOY McCARNAN: Waiting Children and HIV Program Assistant, Media and Communications Editor, Liaison for Ethiopia Dossier Preparation

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 (she lived a year in France teaching EFL to 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. 

Joy has been a certified CASA/guardian ad litem. Her desire to invest herself in helping orphans and adoptive families was only compounded during recent trips to visit orphanages, street and HIV outreaches in Ethiopia (June '09) and to post-earthquake Haiti (March '10). Joy is especially passionate about children whose lives have been drastically changed by HIV. She hopes to work with medical experts and HIV parenting advocates to develop web-based training materials for prospective parents of children with HIV. She is also coordinating Illien's Waiting Children Program.

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.

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.

GERALD BOWMAN: International Adoption Social Worker

Gerald A. Bowman, LCSW, ACSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker residing in Munich, Germany since 1987. He works with Illien and in affiliation with one of Illien's cooperative agencies, Wasatch International. Gerald is licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Republic of Ireland. He is also recognized as a Dipl. Sozial Pädagoge in the Republic of Germany. He is a Clinical Member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT). His website is www.geraldbowman.com.