The NAA Mission

Leaders advancing best practices in adoption from foster care.

The NAA vision

Build the premier network of professionals and agencies to create innovative strategies and solutions so that every child has a permanent loving family.

The NAA Story

It was the early 1980’s. The crack cocaine epidemic was beginning to take hold of families across the nation.  At the same time the Aids epidemic began to impact the health of mothers and fathers.

The number of children entering foster care began to rise. Child welfare professionals were seeking innovative solutions to help children heal while supporting and advocating for their parents – seeking adoption services only when deemed necessary.

Working in the child welfare system to identify solutions were our founders: Marilyn Panichi from Illinois, Mary Bohan from California, and Phyllis Tourse from Massachusetts.  These three trailblazing women exchanged information on how they were serving children and families during the crises in their home states.  They experienced success by replicating the ideas they learned from one another.

Recognizing there was more to learn by expanding the peer-to-peer network, these three innovators brought forth the concept of forming an Adoption Exchange Association in 1982 at a federally funded National Exchange Conference.  The conference planning committee, comprised of our founders, presented the organizational structure of a national association to attendees. The concept was unanimously accepted as a necessity for the field to continue to learn, grow, and collaborate to help children and their families.

Since that time, Adoption Exchange Association (AEA) held its national conference every other year bringing a network of social workers together to share innovative and best practices to better serve children, youth, and families. Our strong national network made us a serious contender for federal grants to build the capacity of social workers across the county.

When the Administration for Children, Youth and Families’ Children’s Bureau released a funding opportunity announcement to create a national adoption information exchange system in the early 2000’s, our Board of Directors authorized the organization to apply for the grant, which was named: the Collaboration to AdoptUSKids. We won the competitive grant opportunity in 2002 and we continue to operate AdoptUSKids with our collaborative partner organizations to this day!

Our most recent accomplishments include: the country’s first national adoption match event (2017); the country’s first national adoption workforce development program, I-CARE (2018); national research on exchanges with Morgan State University (2019); a national family finding replication project (2020); national racial equity research project with Morgan State University.

In 2019 we conducted an extensive strategic planning process with our Board of Directors, members, staff, and stakeholders to identify potential areas for growth. Member data pointed to the name “Adoption Exchange Association” as a barrier to our growth.  Members said our name should capture the breadth of our services in adoption and our geographic reach as a national association.

A committee comprised of directors from the Board, members, staff and a branding expert collectively completed naming convention exercises, reviewed moodboards, presented creative briefs to the Board who voted to transition from the Adoption Exchange Association (AEA) to the National Adoption Association (NAA) officially on June 15, 2021.

Upholding the fidelity of our original model as a network of leaders in adoption, the Adoption Exchange Association is now the National Adoption Association.  We are the leaders advancing best practices in adoption from foster care. 

The NAA Values

Our values are the hallmark of NAA. As a national organization representing 500 members, we are committed  to  embracing the following concepts: inclusivity, every child deserves a family, timely permanency, youth voice, kinship connections, diligent recruitment and support, racial equity in adoption, professional capacity building, and professional growth and development.

Click here to download our value statement.