Monday Evening Speaker Series
Adoption Network Cleveland is pleased to offer a VIRTUAL Monday Evening Speaker Series full of topics that are of interest to a broad audience impacted by adoption, kinship, and foster care. These programs are made possible by donors and presenters volunteering their time and they thrive thanks to the active participation of attendees.
Upcoming Presentations
Monday, March 23, 2026
Surprise Siblings with Becky Drinnen and Oliver Leembruggen
Were you the oldest child in your family? Were you the baby of the family? Were you suddenly knocked off of your coveted spot by a DNA discovery? Did you suddenly have the brother or sister that you always wished you had? Join Becky Drinnen and Oliver Leembruggen as they talk about their discovery of surprise siblings.
About Oliver:
Oliver Leembruggen is a simple man with a complexicated identity. In 2018 his DNA results accelerated his journey into finding his genetic connections. Oliver is a co-facilitator of Adoption Network Cleveland’s DNA Discovery Group that meets monthly on Zoom.
About Becky:
Becky is a Baby Scoop Era adoptee who found her way back to her roots through DNA and search, reuniting with siblings, birth parents, and extended family. Becky is a former co-facilitator of both Adoption Network Cleveland’s monthly DNA Discovery Group, and its former Dayton area General Support and Discussion Meeting.
Monday, April 27, 2026
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM ET
Adoption Is a Story We All Share: A Conversation with Anna Jinja
What does it mean to belong? To search for yourself in the faces of strangers? To find that family is not only the one you were born into, but the one you choose—and the one that chooses you?
Join Anna Jinja—adoptee, author, and host of The Anna Jinja Show—for an intimate and wide-ranging conversation that weaves together her debut novel Adopting Grace, her work as a podcast host, and the real human stories that have shaped her understanding of adoption, identity, and healing.
Drawing on her debut novel Adopting Grace and the real voices she has gathered through The Anna Jinja Show, Anna will bring to life the stories of adoptees, birth parents, adoptive families, and volunteers—including Dan and Beth Miller, longtime members of the Adoption Network Cleveland community, and Betsie Norris, ANC's founder and executive director—whose episodes of the show beautifully capture the transformative power of community, search, and reunion.
Topics will include:
● The search for identity and biological family—and the courage it takes to begin
● How fiction can illuminate truths that memoir sometimes cannot
● The role of community in the healing journey—why you don't have to search alone
● Reunion stories: the joy, the complexity, and the unexpected gifts
● The "adoption constellation"—and how everyone touched by adoption has a story worth telling
Whether you are an adoptee, a birth parent, an adoptive family member, or simply someone who has ever wondered where you belong—this conversation is for you.
About Anna:
Anna Jinja Mather was adopted from Seoul, Korea, and grew up in Iowa. Her heart is filled with love for people and their stories. By sharing her adoption story and all that she is learning to navigate personal and professional challenges, she hopes to help us all believe, accept, and value the inherent worthiness of every person.
Anna has dedicated her life to nonprofit organizations and causes—as a volunteer and professional—which led to an unexpected role as a radio producer and host at KHOI 89.1 FM. In 2018, she returned to Iowa to serve as Executive Director of Able Up Iowa, before a surprise marriage proposal at the Ames Public Library sent her to Ohio, where she now lives happily with her husband Pete and their dog Floyd.
Anna is the host of The Anna Jinja Show, a podcast distributed through Pacifica Network and WOUB Public Media (a local NPR affiliate) that focuses on stories, issues, and questions connected to adoption and foster care. Each episode pairs a guest's personal story with a song or poem selected by a featured writer or musician—a creative interchange that guides listeners toward the belief that we each have a home in this world, that we belong, that we are worthy, and that we are loved.
Monday, May 18, 2026
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM ET
Sharing Your Truth with B.K. (Kate) Jackson
B.K. (Kate) Jackson, along with a panel of essayists, will discuss the forthcoming anthology: Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship—personal essays about the experience of encountering unknown close relatives. Together they’ll address the importance of storytelling for adoptees and how it contributes to shaping the narrative about adoption.
About B.K.:
B.K. (Kate) Jackson is the editor of Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship, which will be published in June by ELJ Editions. She’s a developmental editor, a certified book coach, and a journalist who’s contributed to HuffPost, The Los Angeles Times, The Sun, SurvivorLit, Whale Road Review, Hippocampus Magazine, WIRED and more. She earned a BA and an MA from UCLA. Kate is the founder and editor of Severance (severancemag.com)—a magazine and community for adoptees and individuals who’ve discovered misattributed parentage. She’s revising a memoir about maternal abandonment and family secrets. She lives in Milford, Pennsylvania. Find her at www.bkjacksonwriter.com, creativelyadhd.substack.com, and halfasorrow.substack.com.
