Board Members
Kathleen Adams, LPC, PTR, CM
Kay is a psychotherapist, adult educator and registered poetry/journal therapist. In 1988 she founded and still directs the Center for Journal Therapy, a global institute with headquarters in Denver, Colorado and in 2008 opened the cyber doors to its professional training division, the Therapeutic Writing Institute. Kay has been a NAPT member since 1992 and received her PTR credential in 2000. She was on the board of NAPT for 12 years and was president 2000-2002. She was on the Federation board from 2003-2008 and rejoined the board in 2023 in a strategic planning role. Kay lives quietly in the western suburbs of Denver with her husband, Ken Perreault, and their apricot poodle, Banjo.
Kristen DeFazio-Schmidt, MLS, CAPF, CJF
Kristen has served on the IFBPT Board since 2018. She serves as the Ethics Chair and her committee work has included the website, credentials, training guide, and curriculum. Kristen has been an educator for 26 years, instructing all ages (elementary, middle school, high school, undergraduate, and graduate) ranging from the public-school sector to the private collegiate level and tutoring. She has worked in the equipment rental business as an Office Manager and CBO for the past eleven years. She is a writer, poet, and bibliophile.
Anjana Deshpande, LCSW, CPT, CJT
Anjana has served on the IFBPT board in the capacity of Vice President and is currently member at large. She currently works as a Readjustment Counselor at the VA and also teaches through the Therapeutic Writing Institute.
Lorrieann Geyer, MA, BCSE, CAPF
Lorrieann is currently an instructor of English and Global Perspectives at a public high school in Florida. She taught at a private therapeutic high school for ten years in New Jersey. It is at that location where she found the profound impact of reading and writing poetry with fragile youth. She completed her thesis on this subject and went on to study with Dr. Sherry Reiter while serving on the National Association of Poetry Therapy as Academic and Outreach Chair from 2017-2021. Lorrieann received her CAPF in August of 2020 and also holds a Board Certification with the American Academy of Special Education Professionals and relocated to Florida three years ago. She has joined the IFBPT as Secretary and looks forward to working with our organization.
Dottie Joslyn, CAPF
Dottie is currently treasurer for IFBPT. She is a poet and writer and a retired bookkeeper. She served for several years on the NAPT board as the bookkeeper and membership chair. She worked at the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) chapter in Southwest Missouri as a poetry and journaling facilitator. She has a book of poetry, Just Show Up.
Charity Oi-ming Fok, MSocSci, MExAT, PGDE, CPT
Charity is a registered educational psychologist in Hong Kong and in the UK. She has worked with children/ young people, families, and educators for 16 years. She is also an expressive arts therapist, applying multimodal arts (visual art, drama, writing, dance and movement, music) for therapeutic purposes in her intervention work. She completed her CPT training in 2022. Charity will be part of the credentials committee and international relations committee.
Robin Rosado, CASAC Advanced, CAPF, ADS, CA
Robin currently serves on the IFBPT board as Member in Training Chair. She is an addictions counselor in New York City, using the healing power of poetry to assist in strengthening individuals’ self-esteem and sense of empowerment in their recovery journeys. She is a poet and the founder of Calliope’s Cocoon Inc.
Nancy S. Scherlong, LCSW, SEP, PTR/CJT, CM
Nancy is a licensed clinical social worker in the states of CT and NY, trauma-informed wellness coach, registered poetry (2002) and journal therapist (2014) and certified mentor (2005). She currently serves as president of the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy, is the chair of the certified mentor committee and the liaison to the sister organization – The National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT). Nancy has been part of the poetry therapy community for over 30 years and has served on NAPT’s board as well as the VP of Membership and as the Government Affairs Chair to the National Association for Creative Arts Therapies Associations. She teaches for the Therapeutic Writing Institute (TWI), believes in the power of arts for social change and serves as lead faculty for Adelphi University’s postgraduate certificate program in the Applied Expressive Arts in Counseling as well as on the faculty of Columbia University and Kint Institute. She has co-authored several chapters on the healing power of poetry. Her consulting business is Change Your Narrative LCSW PLLC.
Hyesook Son, PhD, CAPF
Hyesook Son is a CAPF and Professor of English at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, specializing in American poetry. Author of Alterity and the Lyric: Heidegger, Levinas, and Emily Dickinson (Seoul National University Press, 2007) and Literature and Spirituality in the English-Speaking World (Bern: Peter Lang, 2014), she has written extensively on American poets and poetic tradition. Her collection of American poems, An Anthology of American Poetry (Seoul: Changbi, 2014), has been not only popular among readers who wish to explore the depth of American poetry but has also been widely used for educational purposes, establishing itself as a textbook for understanding and translating American poetry in Korea. She has twice been a Fulbright researcher and has translated The Body (Cambridge University Press, 2006), Nicholas Mazza’s Poetry Therapy: Theory and Practice (Seoul: Sigma, 2023), Hart Crane’s The Bridge (Seoul: Miheng, 2024), Allen Ginsburg’s Kaddish and Other Poems (Miheng, 2024) and other literary and academic works into Korean. She is currently a director of The Humanities and Healing Institute.