Pat Johnston is Perspective Press’ publisher. She has been writing and speaking and advocating about infertility and adoption issues for nearly 30 years, beginning as a long-term volunteer in Indiana coalition building and with RESOLVE (for which she chaired the national board of directors for three years) and including several years on the national board of Adoptive Families of America.

An innovative thinker, in 1979 Pat and two partners (Carol Hallenbeck and Dr. William R. Keye, Jr.) conceived of and planned what they later discovered had been the first consumer symposium on infertility held anywhere in the world! It became the model for the RESOLVE/Serono symposia series. A regular columnist (“Growing Up Adopted: 0-2”) for Adoptive Families magazine for over five years (ending in 2000), Pat is an on-line expert for INCIID’s Exploring Adoption and Expecting by Adoption bulletin boards. As well, she is a frequent contributor to many other magazines and newsletters.

Pat’s books include Understanding Infertility: Insights for Family and Friends, Taking Charge of Infertility, Adopting after Infertility, Launching a Baby’s Adoption, and Adoption Is a Family Affair! What Relatives and Friends Must Know and editing the poetry anthology Perspectives on a Grafted Tree. Pat and her husband, Dave, are the second generation of their family to extend it beyond infertility through the adoption of three children. (See Pat’s Recommended Reading List).

Pat Johnston’s decision-making and special-issue-exploration workshops for consumers and her in-service trainings for allied professionals are routinely praised for their friendly, inspiring, and gently provocative nature. Frequent topics (as one hour sessions or mixed and matched for half and full day sessions) include

Infertility: Issues and Decisions

• Life at the Crossroads
• Taking Charge of Infertility
• Making Good Decisions
• Creating a Balance
• For Men:What to Do when You Can’t “Fix It”
• Fostering Effective Communication between Partners
• Dealing with Family and Friends
• Coping with the Holidays
• Choosing the Right Professionals
• Doctor/Patient Relationships
• Where Do We Go from Here?–Evaluating Options
• When Is Enough, Enough?–Knowing When to Stop
• Ethics and Choices
• Why Childfree is not Childless
• The Quasi-Adoption Options: Donor Insemination, Surrogacy, Egg and Embryo Adoption
• Is Adoption for You?–Making the Decision
• Is Adoption for You?–Making the Commitment
• Tough Adoption Choices–Making a “Match”, Openness, Artificial Twinning, and more
• Parenting after Infertility

Parenting in Adoption

• Launching a Baby’s Adoption
• Promoting Attachment
• Growing Your Family–Entitlement, Attachment and More
• Getting the Words Right–Using Respectful Adoption Language
• Adoption Expectancy–Feeling “Pregnant”
• Eggs, Cabbages Patches, Airplanes and Social Workers–What Kids Think
• Attaching through the Senses
• Children’s Developing Understanding of Adoption
• Sex Education and The Adoption-Built Family
• Conspicuous Families–Parenting across Racial Lines
• Embracing Difference
• Opening Ourselves to New Issues
• Bringing Family and Friends Aboard
• Promoting Understanding in the World Outside

And, for profressionals ,The Infertile Client in the 21st Century a half or full day workshop on dealing with today’s changing issues with today’s changing clients

To contact Pat Johnston about speaking for your organization, e-mail Pat at the office of Perspectives Press

Pat moderates the Exploring and Expecting through Adoption Forums