TEAM

 
Din Blankenship, Director & ProducerDin is an adoptive mom and independent filmmaker. After a decade working in architecture, Din made a career shift into documentary filmmaking as a director and producer of REFUGE, which is set to premiere in November of 2021. Din also directed and produced the short documentary, Worthy that is currently in Post Production. In 2021, Din founded her production company, Late Bloomer Films, and while her creative interests span many mediums, she has found her passion in filmmaking. When Din is not making movies, she can be found walking on the Beltline with her husband, daughters, and dogs.

Din Blankenship, Director & Producer

Din is an adoptive mom and an award-winning filmmaker based in Birmingham, AL. Her first documentary, REFUGE premiered at DOC NYC in 2021, where it was awarded Special Mention in the US Competition and was a nominee for the Grand Jury Prize. It has since won the audience award and jury award for Best Documentary at multiple film festivals, and was recently listed in “USA Today’s List of Movies You’ll Want to Watch in 2023.” The film is now available on all major digital platforms and all Delta flights worldwide. Prior to filmmaking, Din worked as an architectural designer for over a decade, where she developed her creative insight and honed her skills in visual communication and managing complex projects. She has a Masters in Architecture with High Distinction from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Virginia. In 2021, Din founded her production company, Late Bloomer Films.

Elizabeth Lodge Stepp, Producer

Elizabeth Lodge Stepp is an Austin, TX based producer. Elizabeth’s latest film, USERS, premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary. She is also a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Grantee with USERS and a Sundance Feature Film Creative Producing Fellow with MONSTERS AND MEN, which premiered in Sundance’s 2018 Dramatic Competition line-up, and won the festival’s Special Jury Award for Outstanding First Feature. In addition, she was a co-founder of the Department of Motion Pictures and has produced numerous films, including BRIMSTONE & GLORY which was named 2017 Top 5 Documentaries by the National Board of Review, and KERRI WALSH JENNINGS: GOLD WITHIN which premiered on NBC in 2016, and co-produced KNIGHT OF CUPS (2015) and SONG TO SONG (SXSW 2017), both directed by Terrence Malick.

Emily Kuester, Consulting Producer

Emily is a transracial adoptee and filmmaker. She has assisted in producing short and long form documentaries, virtual reality experiences (2019 Sundance VR experience, Ashe 68), podcasts, & mobile apps. Most recently, she directed her first feature documentary, Messwood with 371 Productions and Participant Media. She is the co-creator of the fiction series Black Girl Training, which won the first annual Keep It Colorful campaign with Seed and Spark and is now being Executive Produced by Mary Ann Marino. Emily was also a facilitator at the 2018 Mozilla Festival in London and was on a 2019 SXSW panel for a new WebVR experience, The Colored Girls Museum. She has her undergraduate degree in film from the University of Wisconsin, where she served as the first black woman to be elected as student body president.

Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, Co-Producer

Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard is a birth mother in an open adoption and a strong advocate for safe, ethical, child-centered adoptions. She has spent the past several years working in the adoption field - both as a paralegal on the west coast and in adoption agencies in the midwest and southeast. She is now the Director of Advocacy and Policy at Ethical Family Building. She is the co-host of the Twisted Sisterhood Podcast, the first podcast by birth moms, for birth moms. Kelsey resides in Northern California with her husband and daughter.

Leigh Johnson, EditorLeigh Johnson is a New York based film editor. She most recently edited Us Kids, that premiered at Sundance in 2020 and won the Human Rights Award at Full Frame. Previously she edited the HBO documentary It's A Hard Truth Ain't It, which premiered at Tribeca, was nominated for an Emmy, and is the first feature film co-directed by men inside a maximum-security prison released for a wide audience. She also edited the HBO documentary Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus, which interweaves the personal, political, and artistic threads of a theater troupe's work under an authoritarian regime. This film premiered at Toronto and won an Emmy for Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming. She was a Contributing Editor at the Sundance Edit and Story Labs and the 2017 recipient of the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship.

Leigh Johnson, Editor

Leigh Johnson is a New York based film editor. She most recently edited Us Kids, that premiered at Sundance in 2020 and won the Human Rights Award at Full Frame. Previously she edited the HBO documentary It's A Hard Truth Ain't It, which premiered at Tribeca, was nominated for an Emmy, and is the first feature film co-directed by men inside a maximum-security prison released for a wide audience. She also edited the HBO documentary Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus, which interweaves the personal, political, and artistic threads of a theater troupe's work under an authoritarian regime. This film premiered at Toronto and won an Emmy for Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming. She was a Contributing Editor at the Sundance Edit and Story Labs and the 2017 recipient of the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship.

Rachael Porter

Rachael is an award-winning cinematographer based in Chattanooga, TN. She has worked as a Director and Director of Photography on story-driven films of all kinds and is deeply committed to harnessing the power of story to impact, influence, and move viewers. Rachael's recent short film, Greenhouse, is supported by Fujifilm and follows an aspiring flower farmer who begins the journey of growing her first crop. As she works to protect her crop from damaging weather conditions and disease, she encounters a new and unexpected opposition - the debilitating voice of the critic she finds in her own head. Greenhouse is a nuanced portrayal of a universal experience - the paralyzing self doubt brought on by our inner critics and the power of turning inward to confront them. Rachael is also an aunt to her adopted nieces and nephews; she is passionate about capturing this story of adoption with the nuance and care it deserves.

 

ADVISORY PANEL

We have built an advisory panel of birth moms, adoptees, adoptive parents, and adoption professionals. We believe that a story about adoption should be molded and shaped by a diverse range of voices who are each impacted by adoption. Together, we will ensure that the film is captured with great sensitivity towards the wellbeing of the film’s subjects and that we portray a woman’s journey of pursuing adoption for her child with authenticity and nuance. The advisory panel will also provide insight on shaping the film’s impact and education campaign as we work towards shaping a healthier adoption industry. 

Lydia Berkey

Lydia is an adult transracial adoptee. Lydia is an adoption advocate and mentor. She has a strong desire to cultivate brave spaces for adoptees to share their unfiltered feelings about their adoption journey, while empowering them to discover and embrace their racial identity. Lydia also uses her personal insight as well as her professional insight as a permanency caseworker to educate White Adoptive Parents and help bridge the racial and emotional gaps between them and their transracial adoptee.

Victoria DiMartile (Torie)

Victoria is a biracial Black transracial adoptee in a semi-open adoption. She was raised in Kentucky and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Anthropology from Indiana University, Bloomington where she resides on the Kiikaapoi and myaamia territory. She studies kinship, race, and identity through the lens of the modern U.S. adoption industry. Her research focuses on the experiences of displacement, cultural loss, and identity reclamation for transracial adoptees. She also runs the Instagram account Wreckage and Wonder where she shares about racial identity development, transracial parenting, and advocates for more thorough, anti-racist adoption education. She can be found providing consultation to adoption agencies and organization, leading workshops, speaking at conferences, and sharing as a guest on various adoption-related podcasts.

Brandi Ebersole

Brandi is an adoptee, adoptive mom, writer, mentor, and photographer. Growing up trans-racially adopted is no walk in the park. Her hope is to give adoptees a more holistic view of themselves as they venture through the world. She offers her wide range of experience in the adoption world — transracial adoptee and adoptive parent - as useful tools. Her hope is that these tools, along with her formal education in Social Work and Education, can help other families process their own stories. She also loves to write and advocate about the truth around adoption. She is passionate about her family, alongside anti-racism and equity work, and finds great fascination watching them intersect with her transracial adoptee identity.

Muthoni Gaciku

Muthoni Gaciku is a birth mother in an open adoption since 2016. She is the Back to Basics Director at Lifetime Healing Foundation where she runs the adoptive parent education program. This journey has been a whirlwind and she is most thankful for therapy and the bonds and community she has found with women who have also placed a child for adoption. Muthoni is an enneagram 9 whose love language can be summed up with a cozy blanket, Mexican food, and tequila. She resides in Texas with her husband and their son. Muthoni is passionate about advocating for ethical adoption practices, post-placement care for birthmothers, and rigorous training for prospective adoptive parents who want/are open to transracial adoptions.

Erika Gonzales

Erika Gonzales is a birthmom of 4.5 years in an open adoption with her son & his adoptive family. Shortly after placement, she found her way into the nonprofit sector & is now a devoted CASA where she advocates for & mentors at-risk foster youth. She is a staunch supporter of adoption reform & adamantly believes that every birthmom deserves to be treated with dignity & support, regardless of their motherhood journey. Erika currently resides in California where she practices Real Estate & is a Legal Assistant.

Meshan Lehmann

Meshan is the pregnancy social worker at Adoptions Together, a private nonprofit adoption agency licensed in Maryland, Virgina, and Washington DC where she has been working since 2016. She is passionate about all-options counseling, adoption ethics, and access to post placement resources for birthparents. She also led the adoption doula pilot program in 2023, a partnership with the Baltimore Doula Project.

Celeste Liversidge

Attorney Celeste Liversidge has been practicing exclusively in the field of adoption law since 2001. She is the founder of AdoptMatch, AdoptConnect, and TruAdopt Law. She is a fellow of both the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers and a member of the National Association of Counsel for Children, Christian Adoption Legal Services, National Council For Adoption and the North American Council on Adoptable Children. Celeste is a justice seeker at heart and can always be found advocating and speaking out on issues concerning expectant mothers’ rights in adoption.

Ashley Mitchell

Ashley is a birth mom of 14 years in an open adoption. She is the owner of Big Tough Girl and Founder + Executive Director of Lifetime Healing Foundation, where she has set out to seek increased care, understanding, and resources for birth mothers. For over a decade, Ashley has been one of the most consistent and sought after birth mother voices in the nation. She writes curriculum for effective and life-changing birth mom support groups nationwide and advocates for openness, honesty, and education within adoption. Her mission is the women, and she is riding for them until the wheels fall off!

Alli Mohler 

Alli Mohler is a former adoption professional. Currently, she practices as a medical social worker at an urban hospital. While she is not active in adoption work at the moment, she hopes to have a future impact on this complex field. Alli is passionate about adoption education, reform and quality post placement support becoming the norm for all members of the triad. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband, three year old son and two playful pups.

Stephie Predmore

Stephie is an adoptive mama living in the middle of Illinois with her husband, daughter, and their menagerie of cats and dogs. She is passionate about advocating for better adoption education and offers adoption advising for hopeful adoptive and adoptive parents. You can often find her in the kitchen baking up something delicious or on the couch with a craft project. Connect with Stephie on Instagram.