Katherine Matthews and Judith Eckerle

Minnetonka high school student, Katherine Matthews, completed a six-month internship experience with Judith Eckerle, MD, as part of her school district's Honors Mentor Connection program. Katherine explains:

With Dr. Eckerle's guidance I gathered data, wrote, and created a poster for my research paper titled, "Health of Children Considered for Adoption from China". I meticulously combed through deidentified medical records of 105 patients who have been seen in the International Adoption Clinic. I recorded each child's age, sex, birth weight, and whether or not they had special needs (long-term health issues). From there, the data was statistically analyzed to provide percentages of incidence of each of these groups of health issues.

We now can answer parents' and social workers' questions about what they might expect to see medically from children adopted from China, and how many children usually have a certain condition.

In order to keep track of the complex vocabulary used in what I was researching, I made an appendix of over 55 medical terms unique to the referrals that the Adoption Clinic usually sees from China. This list will be available as a reference for residents to use during their time at the IAC and is complete with case numbers and additional references for further information if necessary.

View Katherine's poster here

Says Katherine of her experience, "I'm very lucky to have had Dr. Eckerle as my mentor for this program; she's been a wonderful influence and a real inspiration for me."

Global Pediatrics faculty, Judy Eckerle, published in the April issue of Maternal Child Health: "Vision and Hearing Deficits and Associations With Parent-Reported Behavioral and Developmental Problems In International Adoptees". Dana Johnson was a co-author.

Judith K. Eckerle, M.D., delivered a webinar aimed at child welfare professionals, titled, "Professionals - FASD: Pointing Families in the Right Direction". The webinar was broadcast January 29, 2013.

Dr. Eckerle sees patients in the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Clinic.

Brad Miller, M.D.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Listen LIVE on Wed, 1/16/13 at 11:00 a.m. on the Creating A Family website, as U of M pediatric endocrinologist Bradley S. Miller, MD, PhD gives an internet radio interview on sexual development in adopted children. 

The archived recording will be available as a podcast after 1:00 p.m. on that date. To submit questions for the interview, please send them to info@creatingafamily.org by 1/15/13.

A huge congratulations to International Adoption Clinic co-founder, Dana Johnson MD, PhD, who was presented with a lifetime achievement award in New York City on April 12, 2012, by Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS). Dr. Johnson has made a difference in the lives of thousands of orphaned children worldwide through his pioneering efforts to help establish adoption medicine as a field of practice and his legislative advocacy.

Said current IAC director, Dr. Cindy Howard "We are thrilled that Dana and his work have been recognized with this award. He is a tireless advocate for orphans throughout the world, and we share his passion that every child deserves a family."

View the video made by Emerson Hatch, thanking him for saving her life.


Dana Johnson with Angelique Hatch, co-founder and president of the non-profit
International Child Advocacy Network (ICAN) and member of the board of directors for JCICS.

Maria Kroupina, child psychologist for the International Adoption Clinic, traveled to Russia for in February 2012 to lead a four-day professional training program for social workers, families and clinicians. The training, which focuses on helping children who have experienced early trauma, was developed with support of a Zero To Three fellowship (2008-2011) and will soon be offered in the United States. Contact us if you are interested in bringing Dr. Kroupina to your area.