Andrew Brown (University of Oxford, UK)
Dr Andrew Brown is a Research Officer at the Rees Centre, University of Oxford. He has a professional background as a teacher, senior leader, and teacher trainer in mainstream and special needs education. Andrew’s projects at the Rees Centre include the evaluation of a pilot programme to increase adoptive placements for children with disabilities and a project aimed at enhancing stability for children and young people in the care system. His doctoral research focused on the intersection of adoption, education and identity. Andrew’s current research interests include adoption and the influence of young people’s adoptive identity on family life, parenting and educational experiences. Andrew is also an adoptive father.
Dana Johnson, M.D., Ph. D. (University of Minnesota, USA)
Dr Johnson is a Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Minnesota, where he co-founded the International Adoption Program in 1986. His research interests include the effects of early institutionalisation on growth and development and the outcomes of children who experience early adversity. He has authored numerous scholarly works, including co-editing Adoption Medicine, published by the American Academy of Paediatrics. He is the recipient of the Thomas F. Tonniges MD, FAAP Lifetime Achievement Award for Advocacy on Behalf of Vulnerable Children presented by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Distinguished Service Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Joint Council for International Children’s Services, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rudd Adoption Research Program, and Adoption Hall of Fame Award from the National Council for Adoption. Dr Johnson has an adopted son from India, two birth daughters, three stepdaughters and 10 grandchildren, one of whom is adopted.
Elsbeth Neil, BSc Psychology; MA Social Work; PhD (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA)
Beth Neil is the Rudd Family Foundation Chair in Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she began directing the Rudd Research Program in July 2025. Previously, she worked at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. Over her 30-year academic career, Beth has led numerous studies on adoption, focusing on the experiences of adopted children and adults, birth relatives, and adoptive parents. Her research includes an 18-year longitudinal study on post-adoption contact and work on life story narratives of adopted individuals who are now parents, and adoptive parents who have become grandparents. A qualified social worker, although no longer in practice, Beth collaborates with practitioners and those with lived experience to apply research in practice. She helped develop an attachment-based framework for transitions from foster care to adoption (https://www.movingtoadoption.co.uk/) and led a team collaborating with Adoption England to galvanise changes in professional culture and practice around openness in adoption in England. In 2025, she received UEA’s Chancellor’s Prize for her impactful work supporting post-adoption contact and professional development.
Matt Woolgar (King’s College London, UK)
Doctor Matt Woolgar is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the UK and led the National Adoption and Fostering Team at the Michael Rutter Centre, Maudsley Hospital, London. He worked there for over 20 years, conducting assessments and treatment of complex presentations of adopted children or children from the care system, especially for disentangling the effects of biological and neurodevelopmental factors from attachment, trauma and behavioural issues. Matt has been an attachment researcher and developmental psychologist for over 30 years, starting at the Winnicott Research Unit at the University of Cambridge, then at the Anna Freud Centre at University College London (UCL), and most recently at King’s College London. His current research focuses on how adopted, fostered, and children with social care involvement experience mental health services, and especially how concepts of attachment and trauma are understood across different stakeholders, and how these different understandings act as barriers for children and their families to access evidence-based support.