BKA Board 2023
President: Sarah O’Neill
Sarah was born in Busan, South Korea and was adopted when she was 4 months old. She has lived in New England her entire life. Sarah received her MBA in Information and Process Management & Business Ethics and Corporate and Social Responsibility from Bentley University and her B.A. from Smith College in East Asian Languages and Literatures, where she spent a semester studying at Yonsei University in Seoul her junior year. She currently works in IT.
Sarah first discovered BKA when she attended a BKA panel at a local adoption conference back in the '90s. Sarah joined the Board in 2007 and has previously served as Secretary-Clerk, Treasurer and Webmaster.
In addition to serving on the Board, Sarah has also been involved in the BKA website, workshop and scholarship review committees, event planning, curriculum development and has spoken on panels and co-facilitated workshops. She was also part of the planning committee for #BKA14, BKA's anniversary conference in 2014.
Treasurer: Rebecca Schumacher
Rebecca was born in Incheon, South Korea and adopted at 14 months. She grew up on Long Island, NY, with her parents, and younger brother, who is also adopted from Korea. She received her B.A. in mathematics. Post college she has lived in NY, Charlotte, NC, and in 2001 moved to mid-Coast Maine where she currently resides.
Since college, Rebecca has worked in the fields of accounting, risk management, and taught high school math for 20 years. She currently works with her husband renovating and managing their rental properties. She took a new and deep dive into her cultural and adoptive identity within the last three years during which time she found BKA and joined the Board in 2023.
Secretary: AJ Cho
AJ was born in Seoul in 1985 and grew up in New York City and the Poconos area of Pennsylvania. They’re an only-child. They came out of the fog around 2018 after reading Nicole Chung’s “All You Could Ever Know”. Their first BKA event was a cooking class in 2018 and has been a regular at events since. They joined the board in 2023.
AJ works in higher education as an instructional designer and mainly focuses on DEI and accessibility work.
Clerk: Laura Knuttunen
Laura was born in Chuncheon, South Korea, and adopted when she was four and a half months old. She grew up in Watertown, Massachusetts, with her younger sister who is also adopted from Korea. Laura studied Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She then lived in Korea for two years, teaching English at an elementary school in Gimcheon and Cheongju. Laura returned to Boston and received a M.Ed. in Elementary and ESL Education through Lesley University. She currently teaches a 4th and 5th grade SEI class in Boston.
Laura joined BKA when she returned from Korea in 2010 and joined the Board in 2013. She is interested in collaborating with other adoptee and Asian Pacific Islander organizations.
In addition to serving on the Board, Laura volunteers with the Tufts University Korean Student Association as a mentor for Korean adoptee kids. She helps organize monthly events with BKA members, local Korean college students, young Korean adoptees and their families.
Board Member/Librarian: Lauren Nelson
Lauren was born in Seoul, Korea and adopted at three months old by a lovely family in New Hampshire. She joined BKA in 2017, and is planning a first trip back to Korea this May to search for her birth family and experience her home country. She is a professional violist and freelances in and around the Boston area.
Vice President: Kathy Eow
Kathy was born in Busan and adopted when she was five months old. While a native of New England, she considers "out there" her home, having traveled to more than 30 countries. She joined BKA in 2017 when she returned to Boston from Laos where she had been living and working, and joined the Board in 2021.
Kathy received a B.A. with a concentration in Spanish Language and Literature from Loyola College in Baltimore, MD, and a M.S. in Hospitality and Tourism Management from Florida International University in Miami, FL. Currently she is using neither of these degrees in her role as an arts administrator for ArtsEmerson, Boston’s leading presenter of contemporary world theater.
Board Member/Research Coordinator: Ton (Tonya) Ferraro
Ton was born in Yeosu, South Korea and adopted at 16 months. She grew up in the Catskill region of New York. At 17, she departed NY for Viçosa, Brazil as a Rotary International Exchange Youth Ambassador. She holds a BA from Northeastern University in Studio Art (sculpture) and an interdisciplinary MEd from the University of Vermont focusing on research methodologies. Her epistolary and visual art thesis focused on Korean adult adoptee identity formation and mentoring relationships. In 2021-2022, Ton was a Bioethics Fellow at Harvard Medical School.
In 2019, Ton became involved in BKA when she saw a call for research related submissions. Since then, she has been BKA’s Research Coordinator.
Outside of BKA, Ton works in human research ethics and integrity at Boston Children’s Hospital. She serves as faculty for PRIM&R (Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research), the national organization for applied research ethics, where she has served as a Diversity Advisory Group member and currently serves on the Education Committee advocating for justice and equity in research.