Event Organizers

Jeanette Yoffe
Organizer & Founder of Celia Center
Jeanette Yoffe, M.A., M.F.T., is the Executive Director and Founder of Celia Center.Celia Center is a mental health center which meets the critical needs of all those connected by Foster Care and Adoption and all those who serve the community of Foster Care and Adoption in Los Angeles and beyond.
Before dedicating her life as an adoptions and foster care psychotherapist, Yoffe was a dancer and actress. Yoffe’s desire to become a therapist with a special focus on adopted and foster care issues derived from her own experience of being adopted and moving through the foster care system. And now, after founding Celia Center two years ago, Yoffe wants to merge her background in the arts with the mission of Celia Center.
She earned her Masters in Clinical Psychology, specializing in children, from Antioch University. She has specialized for the past 10 years in the treatment of children who manifest serious deficits in their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral development.
In 2006 she won Los Angeles Foster Care Hero Award for her dedication to children and families in foster Care. Jeanette founded the non-profit she named, Celia Center, after her first mother, Celia.
She has been in the field for over 20 years and has worked as a psychotherapist, foster care social worker, clinical director, trainer for Los Angeles County Child & Family Services and the Department of Mental Health for parents, social workers and therapists on adoption & foster care challenges, parenting, impact of pre-adoption trauma, grief/loss, open adoption, and provides support to adult adoptees searching for long lost family members, as well as assists in reunion and family reunification. She is a Court Appointed Reunification Expert for Los Angeles Superior Court in cases involving children at risk for separation. She has appeared on the OWN and TLC Network, as a Psychotherapist teaching about Adoption in the shows Raising Whitley and Long Lost Family. in 1999 she wrote a one-woman play about growing up in foster care and adoption called, “What’s Your Name, Who’s Your Daddy?” and was accepted into the Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival.
This cathartic experience of separating from her birth family led her on a continuous search for answers, and need to understand the adoptee’s experience of love and loss, as well as the love and loss a birth parent endures during separation trauma and their lifetime.
In 2009, she created a support group called Adopt Salon Los Angeles, which brings together all of the constellation members involved in an adoption and/or foster care placement, as well as ignite strength and community, and bring education, awareness and support for all of these members in forming healthy reunions, open adoptions, healing and understanding for all.
In 2006 she published her 1st book, Groundbreaking Interventions: Working with Traumatized Children, Teens and Families in Foster Care and Adoption available on Amazon.
She is also the clinical director and founder of Yoffe Therapy, more info at YoffeTherapy.com

Nicole Rademacher
Curator
Nicole Rademacher an accomplished artist and creative strategist. Spearheading community building projects and social media strategies both nationally and internationally, Nicole has worked with organizations such as LOOP Video Art Festival, Nairobi National Museum, VE-Global (Chile), and produced events in collaboration with such entities as the Casa Museo Michoacán de los Guindos (a Pablo Neruda home) and soloists from the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra. Currently Nicole is the Director of Communications & Outreach at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA.
She completed her BFA in video and photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA in Electronic Integrated Arts from Alfred University in western New York State. As an artist, Nicole has developed and produced projects in Argentina, Chile, France, Kenya, Mexico, Spain, and her native USA. Her work has been exhibited and screened worldwide including Transmediale, Harvestworks, re-new Digital Art Forum, LOOP Video Art Festival, the Gallery of the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, and the Chilean Consulate in NYC. As a curator she has worked with artists in Chicago, Chile, and most recently with Spanish artist Elena Bajo at 18th Street Arts Center.

Brian Stanton
Performing Arts Programming
Brian Stanton is honored to perform at the Celia Center Arts Festival. BLANK had its World Premiere in Los Angeles, CA in April of 2010. The production has since visited Off Broadway New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, D.C., Vancouver, Dallas, Kansas City, Aspen, Orlando, and San Diego garnering critical acclaim along the way including a “Best Solo Actor” award at the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City and 2 StageSceneLA awards: “Outstanding Actor in a Solo Performance” for Stanton and “Outstanding Director of a Solo Performance” for McKerrin Kelly. BLANK and Stanton have been featured on NPR, ABC News and The Kansas City Star. For more info on BLANK and Stanton visit: thebrianstanton.com
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