The North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) board of directors is pleased to announce that, after a nationwide search, it has chosen Ligia Cushman as the organization’s new executive director. Ligia will begin on January 1.
Ligia currently works for Raise the Future as a national child welfare consultant for the AdoptUSKids project. Before coming to AdoptUSKids, she was director of adoptions and related services at Eckerd Connects in Tampa, Florida. In previous roles, she was an adoption social worker before providing and supervising post-adoption services in Catawba County, North Carolina. Ligia has been a social worker in child welfare for more than 20 years, and has two master’s degrees—one in human services and the other in professional counseling. A few years ago, Ligia completed the AdoptUSKids Minority Professional Leadership Development fellowship where she focused on retention strategies to improve adoption outcomes for children of color. Ligia is also an adoptive parent and a certified racial equity mentor.
Hear from Ligia herself
We hope you are able to join us to meet Ligia in person at the NACAC conference in Kansas City, Missouri, July 18–21, 2023.
As we welcome Ligia, the board would also like to thank outgoing executive director Mary Boo for all of her contributions to NACAC. On staff since 1996, Mary became director in 2015. She has been a tireless advocate for children, youth, and families across the US and Canada, and she will be missed.
