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 been a member of the BKA board for about 2 decades, and has served as president/co-president for 10. 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.
Jacquelyn Wells
Vice President
Jacquelyn Wells is an artist, musician and entrepreneur adopted at 4 months to a suburb of Boston, MA. Around 2015 she found BKA through a Google search and discovered the global adoptee community which changed her life. She later moved to NYC and worked for non-profit Women Cross DMZ and served on the board of NY based international adoptee non-profit organization, Also Known As Inc., including as Vice President from 2021-2022. She currently serves on AKA’s Advisory Board. She lives with her husband, son, and runs her Boston based design company, Oohjacquelina Jewelry, amongst other endeavors. She loves giving back to the community that helped her so much in finding herself and hopes to expand more adoptee and DOKAD (Descendent of Korean Adoptee) programming to the NH/ Southern Maine Seacoast where she resides. Reach out: www.instagram.com/oohjacquelina
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.
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.