Barbara Sereda is an attorney and president and founder of Adoption Advocates of America, which seeks to improve adoption practice in Illinois through passage of legislation. Over the past 20 years she has played a key role in drafting, consensus building and advocating for dozens of laws reforming adoption in Illinois, including the Adoption Reform Act and the Original Birth Certificate Access law. She is past chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Adoption Law Committee and currently serves as co-chair of the Adoption Law Committee’s Legislative subcommittee and as a member of the CBA’s Legislative Committee. Barbara served for 12 years on the board of The Cradle adoption agency, and currently serves on the boards of Family Service of Lake County and the Music Institute of Chicago, and as an appointee of the IDPH and DCFS Confidential Intermediary-Adoption Registry Advisory Council. She served for 6 years as co-president of the District 113 Education Foundation and on the 112 Education Foundation board. She is past president of the Illinois Lawyers’ Assistance Program, and previously served on the boards of Family and Children’s AIDS Network (FCAN), DePaul University’s Community Mental Health Center, and Lutheran Social Services of Illinois’ Behavioral Advancement Council. Barbara was in litigation practice prior to her professional work in adoption advocacy as in-house counsel for Allstate Insurance Company’s Corporate Litigation Division and as an associate at the law firm of Phelan, Pope & John. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.S. in Psychology from Wellesley College and earned a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. She and her husband, Peter, reside in Highland Park, Illinois where they raised their three children, two of whom they adopted from South Korea.
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