Heather Gonzales LPC (she/her)

Adult Adoptee

Co-Founder, beginning in 2017

Executive Director

Heather has a bachelor’s degree in Art Therapy from Capital University, and a master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Pennsylvania Western University. She co-founded Encompass Adoptees in 2017, in its original form, and continues to serve the adoption, foster, and kinship (AFK) community. In addition to being an adult adoptee, Heather has accumulated experiences as a Kinship Support Specialist, as a Mental Health Specialist doing Community Counseling, and as a foster parent. She has served in a variety of children’s educational and care positions including working with Transracial Journeys Summer Camp for several years in their art cabin. Prior to this, Heather had a small woodworking business for nearly ten years. As an artist, Heather’s work was displayed at the 2019 Indiana Adoptee Network Conference, and at the Annual Encompass Adoptees Art Shows. She plans to continue to create spaces for AFK individuals and our community to have a voice, learn, process, see one another in genuine ways, and gain insights through art.

Heather is a domestic adoptee, adopted with her twin sister, raised by her uncle and his wife in a mostly-closed adoption, and reunified with her birth parents and siblings as an adult . In 2015 she became active in the adoption community and began working to process her individual experiences as an adopted person. She has a strong commitment to reading and self-education on relinquishment, adoption, attachment, trauma, grief, and other related issues. Heather believes we must find the words for our experiences in order to understand ourselves, integrate our experiences, join community, and progress forward. At Encompass Adoptees, Heather uses her passion for art, education, inclusivity, and teamwork to find new and creative ways to support the adoptive, foster, and kinship (AFK) community and all the diversity found within it.

Dr. Angela Tobin, OTD, OTR-L (she/ her)

Bio Sibling, in Kinship Family

Board Member since 2023

Angela Tobin earned her doctorate in occupational therapy from the Ohio State University and bachelor’s degree in Educational Psychology from Mississippi State University. She is leader, advocate, and researcher in the field of kinship care. She is the founder and leader of Kinship Caregivers Connect, an online statewide support group in Ohio. Dr. Tobin’s interest in working with kinship families sparked from personal experience, as both her grandparents and then her parents raise her cousin (their grandson/nephew). She has taken an interdisciplinary and holistic health approach to supporting kinship families.

Dr. Tobin also works as a Research Associate exploring various topics related to kinship family wellbeing at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She has developed and facilitated training for school professionals around understanding and supporting kinship families in schools.  In March 2023, she gave a Tedx Talk titled: “Understanding and Supporting Kinship Caregivers” at Ohio State University. Angela recently partnered with Dr. Joseph Crumbley to develop facilitators’ guides and caregiver worksheets as part of a video training for kinship caregivers titled “The Inherent Strengths in Kinship Families.”

Olivia Hamilton (she/her)

Adoptive Mom, Previous Foster Parent

Board Memeber since 2023

Rev. Olivia Hamilton is an Episcopal priest and board certified chaplain. In addition to being a foster and adoptive parent of two, she is the founding pastor of The Brood, a ministry for foster, adoptive, and kinship families in the Cincinnati area. She is passionate about the intersections of post-traumatic growth, mental health, and spirituality. In her free time, she loves to visit thrift stores, cook, and spend time with her wife Molly, her two amazing children, and her dogs.

Nemili Johnson (she/her)

Adult Adoptee, Daughter of an Adoptee, and Adoptive Mom

Board Member, since in 2025

Nemili Johnson earned her bachelor's of nursing from The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, and completed her master's in Medical Informatics from Northwestern University. She is a second generation, transracial adoptee, with 2 lovely children (one adopted, one biological) and married to a wonderful man. She is also fortunate to have an adoptee-rich extended family.

Nemili began her nursing career in geriatic psychiatry in 2003. Using those same mental health tools - to provide a foundation of self reflection for her own adoptive issues and behaviors - Nemili developed a personal passion and awareness of this topic and its effects on the adoptive self. Then, while living in Georgia, she began to meet adoptive parents seeking guidance from an adult adoptee's lived experiences, challenging Nemili to broaden her understanding of how to use her voice beyond self-analysis and into the adoptive family dynamic. This led Nemili into becoming a co-founding president of Chosen for Life Ministries (CFLM), an organization that continues to support international, domestic, and fostering initiatives in Athens, GA. In conjunction with her past CFLM participation, Nemili was honored to be asked at expanding her voice scope by speaking at several other national adoption conferences on topics around adoptee growth and family integration. Today, Nemili serves with an ever-present passion for loving-on, connecting with, and learning from the lived experiences of her adoptive/foster/kinship friends and community.

When not involved with adoptive events, Nemili spends her free time working as a IT Manager, spending time with family, participating in women's ministry & choir, meeting with friends, reading books, and thinking about where to travel next.