Harnessing the Power of Summit

Jennifer Fahlsing, President & Co-found of NAAP

Jennifer resides in Indiana and she recently retired after working 20 years in the employment industry and is a licensed real estate Broker. She holds a BS in Business Management and her background includes education, training, sales, operations, and public speaking. As an Adoptee and First Mother she has a unique understanding of the challenges involved in search and the gamut of emotions experienced in reunion. In 2013, after three decades of searching she located both her mother and son within a 3-month period. In 2018, after years of rejection she finally reunited with her father days before his death. She has served on the board for the ISSA, joined Hoosiers for Equal Access to Records in 2015, and testified in 2015, 2016 and 2021 in support of OBC access legislation for Indiana Adoptees. In 2018, Jennifer was the recipient of the Angel in Adoption award.

Kara Rubinstein Deyerin, CEO & Co-founder of Right to Know

Kara is a non-practicing attorney with an LLM in Taxation and a master’s in Trade & Investment Policy. In 2018, she wanted to see where in Africa her father’s family came from. Her over-the-counter DNA test revealed she was 50% something, but she had zero African DNA. This meant the man on her birth certificate couldn’t possibly be her genetic father. She lost her bi-racial identity with the click of a mouse. She learned she was 50% Jewish. The DNA pandora’s box she opened led to an identity crisis. Because there were few resources for people with misattributed parentage and a lack of legal rights, she co-founded Right to Know.

Kara is leading advocate for genetic identity rights and people impacted by misattributed parentage. She has appeared on many podcasts, in multiple television interviews and articles, and has been a frequent speaker on her DNA surprise, the right to know, and the complex intersection of genetic information, identity, and family dynamics.