Psychjourney Audio Book Club

Three Little Words: A Memoir

MP3 File

Length-28 minutes, 23 seconds

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Ashley Rhodes-Courter, author of Three Little Words: A Memoir published by Atheneum.

Ms. Ashley Rhodes-Courter

Ashley Rhodes-Courter was born in North Carolina in 1985 and entered foster care in 1989. Over the next nine years, she lived in 14 placements before being adopted at age 12 by Phil and Gay Courter of Crystal River, Florida.

Ashley just graduated from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and will walk with her class in May. She was the recipient of Eckerd's Trustee's Scholarship, their most prestigious full-tuition award. She has won several other national and local scholarships. She completed a double major in communications and drama with a double minor in political science and psychology.

At college, Ashley was a residential advisor, student public relation spokesperson, and speech coach. She spent her January term, 2006 in South Africa working with a children's literacy project. In the community, she has a job in marketing for a local television station, works with the Pinellas County Heart Gallery and also does on-camera work.

Ashley was the 2004 Youth Advocate of the Year for the North American Council on Adoption and won the Child Welfare League of America Kids to Kids National Service Grand Prize. In 2004, she and her family jointly won the Angels in Adoption from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and nominated by Congresswoman, Ginny Brown-Waite. Ashley has been on the professional staff at the Kinship Center's adoption camp in Pacific Grove, CA for three summer sessions.

On June 1, 2003, the New York Times Magazine published her grand prize winning essay (out of 3000 high school entries) about her adoption day. She expanded her essay into a memoir which has just been published by Simon & Schuster.

In 2007 she was one of 20 college students selected for the USA Today All-USA Academic Team. She also was one of the four GOLDEN BR!CK Award winners for outstanding advocacy by Do Something, and was named one of Glamour Magazine's Top Ten College Women.

Ashley has been featured on Montel Williams, Good Morning America, and other national and local television shows. She has done over 100 speeches, mostly paid, including more than 25 keynotes. She has a passion to tell her story and share hope with other foster children and encourage adoption and permanency.  Visit her website.

The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption

Length-47 minutes, 59 seconds

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Ms. Barbara Bizantz Raymond, author of The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption published by Carroll & Graf.

Ms. Barbara Bizantz Raymond

Barbara Bisantz Raymond is an adjunct professor, adoptive mother, and writer. She has received two awards for feature writing from Women in Communications, and was an author of a child care section that won the National Magazine Award for Public Service. She contributed to The Handbook of Magazine Article Writing, and has written for The New York Times, USA Today, Working Mother, Parents, Writer's Digest, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, McCall's, and Ladies' Home Journal. She lives in New York City.Visit her website.

The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the DecadesBefore Roe v. Wade

Length-47 minutes, 27 seconds

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Professor Ann Fessler, author of The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade published by Penguin.

Professor Ann Flesser

Ann Fessler is a Professor of Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and a specialist in video-installation art. She won a prestigious Radcliffe Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, at Harvard University, to complete her extensive research for this book. The original video-installation project out of which this book grew traveled to museums around the country. She is also the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; the LEF Foundation, Boston; the Rhode Island Foundation; the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities; Art Matters, New York; and the Maryland State Arts Council. Her award-winning short videos have been screened widely at festivals and in gallery installations. Visit her website.

The Complete Book of International Adoption: A Step by Step Guide to Finding Your Child

Length-1 hour, 1 minute, 37 seconds

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Attorney Dawn Davenport, author of The Complete Book Of International Adoption: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Your Child published by Broadway.

Dawn Davenport

Dawn Davenport is an adoption expert, writer, attorney, and speaker specializing in international adoption. Her book, The Complete Book of International Adoption: A Step by Step Guide to Finding Your Child (Random House/Broadway, Nov. 2006), and website, , help families through the international adoption process.

She has published on adoption in national and regional publications, including Conceive Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today. She is interviewed frequently about adoption, including numerous times on National Public Radio. Her research has been featured on CBS News 60 Minutes and People Magazine. Ms. Davenport has served as a background consultant to CBS News 60 Minutes and ABC News Primetime Live on adoption issues. She loves to speak at infertility and adoption conferences to help others on their journey to find their child. Perhaps most important, she is a mom of four by birth and adoption and cares passionately about this issue.  Visit her website.