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BIO Page
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Loryn Smith
Loryn Smith is the Director of Woven Basket Christian Adoption Services, a private adoption agency in Hillsborough County. This role complements the thirty plus years experience Loryn has had in the child welfare system, working both professionally and personally to impact the lives of children in our area. Loryn has worked as a marriage and family counselor, has taught MAPP to both professionals and families, completed home studies, served as the Director of Foster Care and Adoption Services for a Local Community Based Care Agency, and served as the Director of Training for the Sylvia Thomas Center. Loryn has also been certified through Rutger’s University and NACAC as an Adoption Competent Trainer. Loryn brings to her position a personal passion as she and her husband fostered for thirty years, twenty-one of those in the Suncoast Region. Loryn is the mother of fourteen children, seven of whom were adopted through the foster care system. Loryn has been a frequent trainer in this community, bringing practical application of parenting skills to children impacted by abuse and neglect.
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Patty Brink, M.S.
USF Training Consortium - Child Welfare Training Academy
Patty Brink has been in the training field for over 20 years, joining the faculty at the University of South Florida in 2002. Patty has served as a child welfare pre-service, in-service and field trainer as well as performing as a job coach and team leader. Patty is presently a master trainer with the Child Welfare Training Academy, providing training, certification and support to child welfare trainers in contract with the Department of Children & Families. |
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Deena McMahon
Deena McMahon is a family and attachment therapist in private practice. After working as clinical supervisor and director for in-home services for 20 years, she established her private practice working with children and families. She is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker. She does forensic parenting assessments, attachment and sibling assessments, and attachment therapy. She serves as consultant to numerous state and county child protection agencies, adoption agencies, and parent support groups. She provides expert testimony, national and regional trainings and serves as a faculty consultant to the Minnesota State Guardian Ad Litem Program. She has been working with families and children for over 25 years and has developed expertise in the areas of childhood trauma, childhood sexual abuse, grief and loss, family violence, adoption and attachment.
Deena has presented trainings for the Children’s Justice Initiative, sponsored by the MN Supreme Court, has been hired by the Department of Human Services to do state wide trainings, and has her own client caseload. She has provided training for state judges, public defenders, social service supervisors, parents, Guardians ad Litem, early child hood and special education teachers, foster care providers, day care providers, personal care attendants and mental health professionals. She is known for her passion in working with children, her strong advocacy skills and an offbeat sense of humor.
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Wayne D. Deuhn, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, School of Social Work, the University of Texas at Arlington; has considerable experience in working with adoptive and foster care professionals (and families) and residential care staff in both the public and private sectors. He has conducted state-wide training workshops for adoption/foster care personnel throughout the country. He serves as ongoing consultant/trainer to adoptive personnel and foster home developers of Casey Family Programs, and the Louisiana and Texas Departments of Child Protective Services. He is a co-author of "Beyond sexual abuse: The healing power of adoptive families" which is an outgrowth of an ongoing educational program of The Three Rivers Adoptive Council, Pittsburgh, PA. This federally funded project is designed to develop educational materials to assist foster and adoptive families in parenting the sexually abused child. |
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Bob Danzig
Bob Danzig grew from a childhood spent in numerous foster homes to two decades as nationwide head of the Hearst Newspaper Group and vice president of the Hearst Corporation. After graduating from high school with no family support, he took a job as an office boy at his local newspaper, the Albany (N.Y) Times Union. Nineteen years later he became publisher of the Times Union, before heading to the helm of the Hearst Newspaper Group.
Now an author and motivational speaker, Bob is also a member of the teaching faculty at the prestigious New School University and the guiding hand of the Hearst Management Institute. His goal is to be an instrument for renewed affirmation that every single person is worthwhile. |
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Andree Cazabon
Gemini nominee and inspirational speaker, Andrée Cazabon, recently completed her fifth film, 3rd World Canada on the conditions for children living on remote First Nations reserve.
Her films have been seen by over 1 million television viewers over the past decade on: CBC- Newsworld, TVA, Canal D, Radio-Canada and CBC Television and were screened at the Vancouver Film Festival, the Sudbury Film Festival, the Toronto Blue Light Festival and the Yorkton Film festival where her documentary, Wards of the Crown received ‘Best social-political documentary’ at the 2006 Golden Sheaf Awards.
Her community involvement as a youth advocate and her films were featured on Canada AM , the Vicky Gabereau Show, the Globe and Mail, CTV, TFO, the Toronto Star Le Devoir and others. Andrée also offers professional development through her films and is a keynote speaker at a number of conferences across Canada and the U.S. Her message of hope, featured in her first film, the autobiographical, Letters to a Street Child continues to touch the lives of youth and professional.
Andree is an active volunteer on youth-at-risk and youth in foster care projects. Championed by the Senators Foundation and the Max Keeping Foundation, she has helped raised over $360,000 for Scholarships for youth in care.
Andrée Cazabon is a fourth generation Franco-Ontarian and lives in Ottawa.
To order her films or contact her visit: www.andreecazabon.ca
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