Episode 15 Resilience, Leadership & Service as Pathways to Healing with Special Guest Marcie Keithley

Welcome to ADOPTION MATTERS, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad. Join coaches, Kim Noeth, one of your co-hosts, and a birth mother, along with Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adopted person, and Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent as they explore difficult topics and share frank conversations guided by our commitment to truth-telling and truth-seeking.

Today, we honor Marcie J. Keithley as the 2025 Shaping the Future Award recipient for her work in encouraging dialog and understanding between the members of the adoption constellation. The Shaping the Future Award acknowledges the efforts of individuals and organizations committed to encouraging dialog across the adoption constellation because we know that a fuller view of adoption complexity gives a more complete picture of the adoption experience. When we see more completely, relationships can be strengthened and people can grow in their understanding and care for another person’s experience, especially understanding the adoption person’s experience, which is front-and-center. Ms. Keithley's work surely embodies those goals and aspirations!

Marcie J. Keithley, is an author, advocate for genetic rights, speaker, master storyteller and co-founder of the National Association of Adoptees and Parents (NAAP). She retired as Vice President of Retail Bank Management and Merrill Lynch after serving the financial industry for over 32 years. She and her birth daughter, Jessica, were reunited on Father's Day in 2008.

Ms. Keithley co-founded the Indiana Adoptee Network and has testified multiple times throughout the years in support of OBC access for the sister organization, H.E.A.R. (Hoosier For Equal Access to Records), where she served as Vice President. She also hosts the twice-monthly, Friday night virtual event, Adoption Happy Hour, with a global audience from across the adoption constellation. Her journey took a dramatic turn in the fall of 2023 when an intended DNA test to search for more Keithley family members resulted in a DNA surprise that would alter her world: she had no biological connections to the Keithleys. Similar to an LDA, she discovered at the age of 68 that she was raised by non-biological people.

An author, Ms. Keithley has written, The Shoebox Effect: Transforming Pain Into Fortitude and Purpose and currently is working on her next memoir, Beautifully Broken, Diary of an NPE, A DNA Surprise. Whether you are an adopted person, a birth parent or adoptive parent, or a member of the adoption constellation, we are excited to share our stories, insights and support. Thank you for joining, “ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk”