P.O. Box 2085, Middleburg, VA 20118, US
Staff
Kirsten Wicht, MA, LPC
Executive Director &
President, FFAS Board of Directors
Kirsten began her career first as therapist providing mental health services to adults with chronic mental illness and then counseling children and families in crisis. She holds a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Radford University and a M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Marymount University. She is an adoption competent therapist, certified in TBRI (an attachment trauma parenting approach) and licensed in the state of Virginia as a professional counselor. Kirsten has been married to her husband since 1994 and they are the proud parents of one daughter. In 2004 Kirsten and her husband adopted their precious daughter. It was this life-changing experience that inspired her career shift to adoption work, which quickly became her passion. In 2006 she came to Forever Families Adoption Services, Inc. as a contract adoption case worker, completing home studies and post adoption supervision for the agency. In July 2011 she became Executive Director after agency Founder, Barbara Slaton, stepped down to pursue another adventure.
Email: KWicht@ffasva.org
Clair M. Peyton, LCSW, ACSW
Director of Social Work &
Adoption Case Worker
Clair has enjoyed working in the adoption world for the past 15 years of her career. Earning her MSW in 1984 from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!), she first worked in family counseling for the Navy’s Family Service Center system while a Navy wife. She feels privileged that she was then able to remain home with her three children for 14 years, enjoying her ability to be very involved volunteering for their varied school and church activities. When ready to return to employment, she first worked as a hospital social worker, but was delighted to join Forever Families and thinks it is a great privilege to play a small part in the adoption process of so many wonderful families. She is certified in TBRI, an attachment trauma parenting approach that FFAS champions. Though she has not adopted a child personally, she does feel very attached to the 30 plus Haitian orphans she serves in a volunteer capacity in Fort Liberté, Haiti and is always planning her next trip to see them. She and her husband have known each other since they were 4 years old, and they have been happily married since 1982. In shock that they are old enough for all of their children to have left the nest, they are grateful for the presence of their crazy happy rescue dog and two aging kitties in their home.
Email: CPeyton@ffasva.org
Marcia Vogelsburg, MA
Adoption Case Worker
New to Virginia, Marcia joins Forever Families Adoption Services, Inc. after living in the Chicago area and more recently, spending several years in Ft. Worth, Texas. Marcia began her career as a foster care caseworker after earning her B.S. in Sociology/Psychology from Illinois State University and a M.A. in Counseling from Governors State University. She spent 12 years working with biological families and foster parents in an effort to reunify children or secure permanent homes for them. While working with foster children, Marcia and her family decided to become foster parents themselves. After several years working in foster care, she transitioned to the development and coordinating volunteers side of the social service agency. She enjoyed being able to speak about parent and children success stories to volunteers who came to complete various jobs on campus and raise money for the agency with an annual Fashion Show. While living in Texas, she spent 10 years volunteering as an intake counselor to community members in crisis by making referrals, providing food and emotional support. Marcia and her husband are empty nesters after raising three children. As history buffs and Marcia growing up with "Abraham Lincoln" in Springfield, Illinois, they enjoy all of the rich history that Virginia and the surrounding area have to offer.
Email: MVogelsburg@ffasva.org
Risa Shimizu, MSW
Adoption Case Worker
Risa originally joined FFAS in 2016 and worked as an Adoption Case Worker for two and a half years until she was called to life overseas as a State Department spouse. Returning from Colombia in 2020, Risa is happy to re-join FFAS in the same role and to continue working with adoptive families in their home study and post placement segment of their adoption journey.
Earning her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the American University in Washington D.C. and later, a Master of Social Work from Columbia University in New York, Risa started her 17-year career as a social worker in foster care, working with medically fragile foster children in the five boroughs of New York City. This was followed by her work as an Open Adoption Counselor in Raleigh, N.C., advising both birth and adoptive parents in their open adoption planning. Risa then spent a few years in Okinawa, Japan, working as a consultant at the Airmen and Family Readiness Center on Kadena Air Base, helping airmen and their family adjust to the many rigors of overseas military life. Since having her two daughters, Risa appreciates blending her two roles as a mother and social worker. She greatly enjoys being a stay-at-home mom, while also helping families achieve their dream of having a family through adoption. Risa lives in Virginia with her husband, two daughters, and their beloved shih-tzu.
Email: RShimizu@ffasva.org
Elizabeth Demler, msw, lcsw
Adoption Case Worker
One of the newer faces to Forever Families, Lizzy holds her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from UNC-Asheville, and a Master's Degree in Social Work from Hawaii Pacific University. It was in Honolulu that she discovered her love for adoption, while interning at an international adoption agency there. After graduating, Lizzy went on to teach English at a University in China before returning to the states to begin her social work career. Lizzy has worked for over seven years in the adoption field. She has enjoyed working with all members of the adoption triad, including training adoptive families, facilitating adoptions from the foster care system, and counseling birth parents. Lizzy is currently a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and loves working with prospective adoptive parents to complete their home study and help them through their adoption journey.
Lizzy recently relocated to south western Virginia where she hopes to start a small farm. In her free time, she enjoys spending time gardening and going on hikes with her two rescue puppies.
Email: EDemler@ffasva.org
Shannon Steckman
Emily Ballas
Intercountry Adoption Consultant
Emily joined Forever Families Adoption Services, Inc. in 2017. She began her career as a social worker in 1999, dedicated to serving at risk youth and families in Washington State’s foster care system. Following her desire to serve vulnerable children around the world, Emily traveled across the country to attend law school in Southern Virginia where she studied International Human Rights Law and ignited a second career as a Foreign Affairs Officer with the U.S. Department of State. During her Federal career, Emily worked closely on international adoption and orphan policy as well as U.S. immigration law. In 2016, Emily decided to leave her work with the Department of State in order to be home more with her four children and to return to her passion for helping adoptive families. Emily is also a professional writer and has published multiple pieces on child welfare and adoption. She enjoys putting her expertise in intercountry adoption, U.S. foster care, and U.S. immigration law to good use, helping to ensure that adoptive and prospective adoptive families are provided with the most accurate guidance and best possible services. Emily lives in Virginia with her husband and kids and spends most of her free time enjoying small town, rural Virginia life.
Board of Directors
Daniel Wicht, MS, CISSP, PMP
Vice President, FFAS Board Of Directors
Daniel has a 25+ year career providing information security services to both the federal government and private industry. He holds a B.B.A. in Information Systems from Radford University and an M.A. in Telecommunications from George Mason University. Daniel is a proud adoptive father who is quick to champion the many benefits that it provides. He is grateful for the opportunity to use his management skills to help Forever Families Adoption Services, Inc. further their mission.
Melissa Finley, BS, CHAM, CHA
Secretary, FFAS Board of Directors
Melissa started her career in healthcare in 1995. She began her employment at Fauquier Health in 1997 and worked as the Director of Patient Access Services, Health Information Management and the CPO for Fauquier Health until April 2016. Following Melissa’s long hospital career, she went to work as a Client Operations Director with Advanced Patient Advocacy. Melissa is currently employed as a VP of operations for ApprioHealth.
Melissa graduated from the University of Mary Washington. She is a Certified HIPAA Administrator and a certified Lean Sig Sigma Green Belt. In addition to being a board member of Forever Families Adoption Services, Inc., Melissa has been a board member of Southern Fauquier Child Development Center (SFCD) for the last twenty years.
Melissa is blessed with a wonderful husband of nearly nineteen years and an amazing, blended family including 33-year-old son, Johnathan, 36-year-old stepson, Greg, and 38-year-old stepson, Randy. Melissa and her husband are thrilled to have three grandsons and one granddaughter.
Amanda Sturgeon
Treasurer, FFAS Board of Directors
Amanda Morrison Sturgeon was raised and educated in Fairfax County, Virginia and currently resides with her husband of 43 years in Culpeper County, Virginia. She received a Bachelor of Arts in History from George Mason University and has spent her entire career in Healthcare Finance, employed for the last twenty four years with Fauquier Hospital, most recently as the Director of Patient Financial Services. She received her Certified Revenue Cycle Executive certification in 2004 and currently serves on several committees for the Virginia Chapter of the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management.
Amanda's proudest accomplishment is being the adoptive mother of two children, who were adopted as infants and are now 35 and 33 years of age, and grandmother to two grandsons, ages 3 and 7.