Meet Our Team
Trudy Landis, Director of Families Are Forever
With degrees in education and child development Trudy Landis is a long-time educator, child development specialist, Children’s Pastor, CASA volunteer and Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI) Practitioner – helping multitudes of adoptive and fostering families form strategies for successful bonding and integration of a son or daughter, brother or sister into a home ready to receive them.
With over 30 years of experience supporting families and children all over the globe through transition, trauma, and everyday challenges, Trudy delights in guiding families to specific tools such as the research based, whole-hearted TBRI practices of the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development and the work of other trauma informed educators and therapists to smooth the way for each child.
Trudy studied with Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross, authors of ‘The Connected Child’ and enthusiastically joined in their enduring passion of bringing healing to children from ‘hard places’ and to the adults who love them so that they may give voice to those children.
Dottie Barnhart, Families Are Forever Coordinator
Dottie has worked with children and families her entire career, beginning as an elementary school teacher in Argentina, Texas and Morocco and later becoming a Certified Child Life Specialist in 2016. As a CCLS she learned to join pediatric patients and their families in their medical journeys of chronic diagnoses, mental health conditions and recovery from traumatic events.
TBRI has greatly impacted her work. Becoming a practitioner in 2019 highlighted the avenues of healing available to caregivers and children through attachment, healthy relationships and consistently caring for core needs like hunger and touch. Now as a FAF coordinator, Dottie supports families as they prepare for adoption through a trauma-informed curriculum.
Dottie lives in Houston, Texas along with her three children and husband. She loves attempting to surf the “third coast” when the waves are good. You can usually find her drinking coffee, watching comedies or talking to friends that laugh loudly.
David Archer, Technical Support
David has been supporting the technology needs of Families are Forever students since helping launch the education platform. From programming new courses to assisting with enrollments, access and completion certificates, he is the go-to technology connection for any assistance you may need.
You can find David at home in the small but charming town of Nehalem with his wife, a fluffy cat, and frequent guests who travel west to enjoy the beautiful Oregon coast.
Advisory Board
David Randall, International Social Services Director
David Randall is a TBRI Practitioner, TBRI Mentor, and proud father of seven children. He is the International Social Services Director for All Gods Children International where he implements, trains, and provides support to organizations caring for children who want to implement TBRI.
David is passionate about using TBRI both personally and professionally, and strives to keep learning so he can provide better care for children.
Jill Crewes, MSW, Director of US Child Advocacy Services
Jill engages with communities, agencies, and organizations across the US to offer support and co-create successful trauma-informed practices to care for children and families by implementing TBRI. She has dedicated her 23-year career to working with children with traumatic histories and the families caring for them. Jill has specific expertise in child protection, foster care, and adoption. She has served as a child protection caseworker, adoption caseworker, foster care certification worker, trainer, and strategic family support program leader. As a TBRI Educator, Jill is committed to children with histories of complex developmental trauma, with a deep passion for helping them heal. Jill believes that there is nothing more rewarding than making the difference in the life of a child and their family, having personally experienced the joys and challenges of fostering and adopting.
Brian De Vos, Vice President of US Child Advocacy Center
Brian began his career directly serving children and families in the child welfare system, both nationally and internationally, in the areas of foster care, adoption, and family preservation. Over the 30 plus years he’s worked in child welfare, he has had multiple successes in program development, financial and business operations, child welfare service provision, fund development, staff development, strategic planning, and management. Throughout his career, he’s been a strong advocate for child welfare system reform with his unique perspective as an adoptive father of two daughters and as the son of an adoptee.
Expert Contributors
Amanda Purvis, Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development
Amanda Purvis is a consultant with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development (KPICD) at Texas Christian University. As a consultant, Amanda’s main focus is instructing systems, organizations, and professionals working with children who have experienced trauma, in Trust-Based Relational Intervention. TBRI, a holistic, attachment-based, and trauma-informed intervention designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children, offers practical tools for caregivers to help those in their care reach their highest potential.
Amanda earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado. She received her Master’s in Criminal Justice and Criminology from Texas Christian University. She began her career working in Child Protective Services as an intake worker. She then transitioned to foster care and post-adoption support, where she spent a decade of her career before beginning her work with the Purvis Institute in December 2017.
Amanda lives in Castle Rock, Colorado with her husband David and their five children, and two corgis. She enjoys gardening, hiking, and driving her children around to all of their activities and cheering from the sideline.
Cam Small, MS, LPCC
Cam, author of This is Why I Was Adopted, has been working to raise consciousness about faith, child welfare, and mental health since 2012, after meeting his biological mother in Korea. Trans-racially adopted and founder of Therapy Redeemed, he holds a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a licensed professional clinical counselor. Cam is PACC certified and registered as an accredited service provider through TAC via Center for Adoption Support and Education. He is also a vetted clinician with MN ADOPT.
In addition, he is trained in biblical counseling, certified in non-violent crisis intervention and is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Minority Fellowship Program.
Eileen Devine, LCSW
Eileen lives in Portland, Oregon and has over twenty years of clinical experience. She is also the mother of a teenager with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, a serious brain-based disability that has challenging behavioral symptoms. She believes that when we understand the way a child’s brain works, we then understand the meaning behind challenging behaviors and begin to see them as symptoms of a child’s differences. Eileen’s goal is to not only support parents in feeling more competent and confident in connecting with their child by parenting from a brain first perspective, but to also recognize their experience as the parent of a child with extraordinary needs and the impact this has on their sense of self and well-being. When these two sides of the coin can be equally addressed, there is less frustration and increased hope in this unique parenting journey.
Through this work with parents, Eileen has created The Resilience Room Membership Community and the Brain First Parenting Program, both designed to support parents in their unique parenting journey. In addition to her one-to-one and group work with parents, she also facilitates dozens of workshops and trainings a year and is an instructor for the C.A.S.E. Institute’s Training for Adoption Competency Post-Masters Certification Program.
Mason Moore, LPC, LAC
Mason is a Denver native and has been working in the mental health treatment field since 1992. From locked forensic psychiatric facilities to private practice, he has worked at all levels of the treatment continuum. Prior to moving into private practice, Mason was the Executive Director of a large agency that served at-risk youth and their families. After 13 years in the non-profit world, he now works with a variety of people in a private practice. Half the practice is geared toward working with teens, young adults, and their families. The other half is dedicated to couples work, competitive amateur and professional athletes, and to individual therapy with people seeking to make difficult changes.