Secretary

Dr. Patrice Martin is an adoptee advocate and nonprofit management scholar-practitioner with over twenty-five years of experience in grants and program management. Patrice’s advocacy work in the adoptee community started in 2019 after her reunification with her biological family on the hit TLC show “Long Lost Family”. Patrice’s three advocacy pillars in the adoptee community are; Media – ensuring adoptee and NPE voices are their true stories are told, Faith – Patrice is founder of the grassroots movement the Adoptee Prayer Collective; which holds an online space for Adoptees and others to pray, meditate and hold space with each other before God; Legislation – Patrice uses her voice to advocate before legislative bodies, most recently testifying in both the Tennessee State and Colorado State House of Representatives in opposition to HB 2067 and HB 24-083 – a bills that appropriated resources expand the use of safe haven baby boxes in Tennessee and Colorado. She has also been a guest on many podcasts concerning adoptee rights.

Throughout her career in business, she has raised the capacity of many multi-million dollar organizations through the implementation of various fundraising, policy and process management initiatives centered on compliant grants management practice. She also serves as an Adjunct Instructor in Business and Social and Behavioral Sciences at Wilmington University. Patrice has a has a Doctor of Business Administration D.B.A. degree from Wilmington University in New Castle, Delaware. an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from the Robert Morris University School of Business, a B.A. in Sociology, and a B.A. in Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. Patrice She also remains connected with community initiatives by serving as a pro-bono grant consultant and board member for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Mercer and Burlington County in New Jersey. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.