Meet the Staff
Karen Cheyney
Executive Director of Adoption Services
Karen B. Cheyney, JD, LSWA, is a co-founder and the Director of Bright Futures and the mother of two children through open adoption. For more than 25 years, Karen has provided legal and counseling services for parents and children.
MollyRose Arp-Sandel
Clinical Adoption Supervisor
MollyRose Arp-Sandel, LICSW has ten years' experience working with children and families. She practices from a social justice perspective and her work is informed by her strong belief in the importance of investment in the caregiver-child relationship and in the early childhood years. Her areas of interest include social-emotional development, infant mental health, anti-racism, and mindfulness. Outside of work, she loves to be in nature, to cook and to eat delicious food, and to spend time with her friends and family.
Desiree Ayala
Adoption Social Worker
Desiree Ayala, MSW, LCSW worked at DCF for 6 years, first as an intern, then as an Adolescent Social Worker and lastly as a Kinship/Family Resource Social Worker.
She currently works full time with family child care providers across the Commonwealth. Her areas of interest and passion include adolescents, kinship care/lifelong connections for foster children, and trauma.
At Bright Futures she conducts child and family assessments and works with expectant/birth parents who are considering an adoption plan for their child.
Lily Baker
Adoption Social Worker
Lily Baker, LCSW, obtained her MSW in 2021 and since has been supporting children, adolescents and families in community and residential settings with a focus on trauma informed care. Lily works part time for Bright Futures completing child assessments and pre- adoptive license studies.
Kim Bernstein
Clinical Adoption Supervisor
Kim Bernstein, LICSW, has twenty-five years of experience working in adoption with a focus on finding families for older children and children with special needs. Her interest area is helping parents to understand their child's fear-based behaviors and support them in their role in their child's healing through connection. Kim grew up in a blended family.
Katie Buckley
Adoption Social Worker
Katie Buckley, LICSW is an adoption social worker completing child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies. Katie earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of New Hampshire, with a graduate certificate specializing in neurocognitive and developmental delays. Katie has worked as a social worker for 18 years, with the majority of work focused on child welfare, foster care and juvenile justice. Katie has experience working with the elderly population as a medical social worker as well as recently working full time for a guardianship agency. Katie is an LGTBQ+ supporter and is passionate about working with and advocating alongside underserved and underrepresented populations.
Erika Cadena
Adoption Social Worker
Erika Cadena, LCSW, is a per diem Adoption Social Worker at Bright Futures. She received her MSW from Simmons University in 2022 and has experience working with youth in intensive foster care and children and families in a hospital setting, in addition to her current role as full time school social worker. Erika uses a trauma informed lens when working with clients and loves to incorporate play therapy and art therapy techniques into her practice. She enjoys being a volunteer mentor for Bottom Line where she assists students with informational interviews and resume building. In addition to being a social worker, Erika enjoys traveling, learning and taking her dog out for walks.
Kristin Cohen
Program Manager, DCF Adoption & Permanency Program
Kristin Cohen, LICSW, has worked with children and families for over twenty years, both within the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Mental Health. She enjoys a full time role at Bright Futures Adoption Center as the program manager of the DCF Assessment Program, working with children and families as well as training and supervising new clinicians. When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with her three children, all of whom are teenagers, along with walking and reading to escape those three teenagers.
Krysten Feeney
Adoption Social Worker
Krysten Feeney, LCSW, is a part-time Adoption Social Worker at Bright Futures. She received her MSW from Wheelock College in 2017 and has 10 years of social work experience working in therapeutic foster care and nonprofit out-of-school time programming; she currently manages a DMH-funded mental health program in addition to her work at Bright Futures. She is an advocate for mental health awareness and suicide prevention. In addition to being a social worker, Krysten enjoys spending time outside and traveling.
Courtney Glazier
Adoption Social Worker
Courtney Glazier has been a LICSW for over 16 years. She has worked as a medical social worker at a local hospital and as a mental health counselor for a community health center. She is a mom of 3 young boys and huge dog lover. She has always had a great interest in getting involved in the field of adoption and is so excited to join the team.
Naomi Goldman
Adoption Social Worker
Naomi Goldman, LCSW has worked in the child welfare field for over fifteen years. She has worked with Bright Futures Adoption Center for the last few years conducting child assessments, adoption and foster care studies.
Shardae Gomes
Adoption Social Worker
Shardae Gomes, LICSW has 14 years of experience in the clinical social work field across various group home, hospital, counseling, and school settings working with children, teens, and families. Her passion and interest lie within a child-centered trauma informed approach. She has a great deal of experience utilizing cognitive behavioral and dialectical behavioral interventions as well as clinical assessment and diagnosis. She is currently a full-time school adjustment counselor and continues to utilize her trauma informed approach when supporting children and families in the community.
Kristen Lampros
Adoption Social Worker
Kristen Lampros, LCSW is a per diem clinician completing child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies. Kristen received her MSW from Salem State University and has worked with children, adolescents, and families both in the home and community setting. Kristen has a practice interest in attachment and trauma.
Rachel Levy
Adoption Social Worker
Rachel Levy, LCSW, is a per diem clinician completing child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies. She has nearly fifteen years of experience working with youth and families in inpatient, intensive outpatient, outpatient, and community-based settings. Rachel is excited to shift her clinical focus within the field to adoption services. She has two young children at home, has started painting as a new hobby, and loves being outside with family and friends.
Lisa Lovett
Clinical Director
Lisa Lovett, LICSW, works with foster and adoptive families and has over twenty-five years of experience working in adoption. She has a practice interest and expertise in older child adoption, attachment and trauma. Lisa grew up in a transracial blended family and she is a licensed foster parent.
Annie Madeiros
Adoption Social Worker
Annie, LCSW, is a per-diem adoption social worker in the assessment program. Annie has worked with children and families since obtaining her MSW from Simmons. She has worked in both residential and school settings supporting youth through a trauma informed lens.
Anne Madden
Adoption Social Worker
Annie Madden, LICSW, is a per diem clinician completing child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies. Annie has worked in child welfare, recovery services, and community mental health for over fifteen years, in both direct practice and research/administrative roles.
Sarah McLaughlin
Adoption Social Worker
Sarah McLaughlin, LICSW, M. Ed., has been working with children and families for over 10 years in both non profit agencies and the Department of Children and Families. She works as a per diem clinician completing child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies.
Carolina Menendez
Office Manager
Carolina Menendez, BSW, is the Office Manager for Bright Futures Adoption Center and is fluent in Spanish.
Annie Nguyen
Adoption Social Worker
Annie Nguyen, LICSW is a per diem Adoption Social Worker at Bright Futures. She has more than ten years of experience providing clinical support to children and families in both foster care and school settings. After spending several years at home raising her two children, Annie recently joined the team at Bright Futures to conduct child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies. She enjoys spending her free time with her family, being outdoors, and reading.
Eliza O’Brien
Adoption Social Worker
Eliza O'Brien, LICSW, has been working with children and families involved with DCF for almost 10 years, and has been working in adoption since 2017. Eliza joined the Bright Futures team in 2022 completing child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies. When not working, Eliza likes to experiment in the kitchen with delicious meals for herself and her family and travel to warm places to escape the New England winters (and falls, and springs)!
Lauren O’Brien
Clinical Adoption Supervisor
Lauren O'Brien, LCSW is a per diem Adoption Social Worker at Bright Futures. She obtained her MSW from Boston College in 2017 and has enjoyed engaging with children and adolescents through community based and residential treatment programs since graduating. At Bright Futures she collaborates with systems and families to complete child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies.
Christine Trendell
Adoption Social Worker
Christine Trendell, LICSW has over 25 years experience working with children and their families in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The focus of her clinical work has been on working with pregnant and parenting women around trauma and attachment, children 0-6, and with families brought together by adoption. She conducts child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies.
Wendy Vandenhoeck
Clinical Adoption Supervisor
Wendy Vandenhoeck, LICSW, is the Clinical Supervisor for Bright Futures and has extensive experience working with all members of the adoption triad. She has worked in the adoption field for over 20 years.
Michelle Vazquez
Adoption Social Worker
Michelle Vazquez, MSW, LCSW is a bilingual social worker with over 6 years of direct clinical experience working with clients of all ages. Since 2021 she has been doing medical social work full time, providing clinical services and support to chronically ill adults in a dialysis setting. She obtained her MSW from Boston College in 2017 with a concentration in Children, Youth, and Families and prior to 2021, worked solely with this population in both a therapeutic setting as well as in child protection. Michelle works part time doing adoption assessments at Bright Futures and enjoys that this has allowed her to reconnect with children and families, which has always been a passion of hers. Michelle is also very passionate about trauma informed practice as well as social justice and anti-racism. Outside of work Michelle enjoys reading fantasy and romance novels, as well as traveling and sight seeing!
Ali Weihofen
Clinical Adoption Supervisor
Ali Weihofen, LICSW, MPH, is a public health social worker working with adoptive families and children. She has 10 years experience working in social services and the nonprofit sector and conducts child assessments and pre-adoptive license studies. In her free time she enjoys hanging with her two young children, practicing yoga and reading.
Marissa Zwelling
Adoption Social Worker
Marissa Zwelling, LCSW works with the adoption triad seeking information from the Florence Crittenton League files managed by Bright Futures Adoption Center. Marissa is an adoptee of the closed adoption era and an adoptive parent.