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About Us

Letter From Executive Director

By Linda Perilstein, Executive Director

I would like to offer a warm welcome from all of us at Cradle of Hope and tell you about our work helping children and families. My husband and I adopted our son from Virginia and our daughter from Romania in the late 1980s. I am an attorney by training and after our family adopted, many others asked for assistance. As a result, I founded Cradle of Hope 35 years ago and have been its Executive Director ever since. Cradle of Hope is licensed in DC, MD and VA and is Hague-accredited for international adoptions.

Cradle of Hope has placed more than 3,600 orphaned children from the U.S., Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Republic of Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Guatemala, and China with loving adoptive parents. Currently, we have active programs in Liberia, Nigeria and Kazakhstan, where we are especially proud of our commitment to finding homes for older children and those with special needs.

Our domestic adoption program began in 2009 and has been growing ever since. We have placed almost 100 US babies and children with loving families. We are expanding our efforts to help more women in Maryland, Virginia and DC facing unplanned pregnancies to consider adoption and more U.S. families who want to adopt locally. We provide resources and support for all parties to the adoption, before, during, and after the adoption is completed. We strive to ensure that birth parents and adoptive parents are well prepared for and comfortable with the adoption process.

Having personally experienced a domestic agency adoption and an independent international adoption, I can truly appreciate the support and knowledge that adoption professionals provide. The adoption process can be an emotional and procedural roller coaster. We have an excellent staff whose trademarks are competence, compassion, responsiveness, and solid ethics. Your Cradle of Hope team will guide you through each step of your adoption and will be available to support you throughout the adoption process and after.

Thank you for your interest in Cradle of Hope. We look forward to the opportunity of working with you. I encourage you to contact us to discuss how we can find a wonderful home for your child or help bring your son or daughter home to you.

Linda

(301) 905-9999
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Meet Our Staff

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Linda Perilstein, Executive Director

Linda is our Executive Director and founder. She is responsible for the overall operation of the agency and our adoption programs. Linda provides guidance and support to our staff and families and has a hand in recruitment, program development, administration, licensing and accreditation compliance, fundraising, domestic adoptions, and many other projects. Linda and her husband have adopted both domestically and internationally. She has lead Cradle of Hope through our 34 successful years.

Ellen-Warnock

Ellen Warnock, Director of Social Services

Ellen has been a part of the Cradle of Hope team since 2020. She has served as staff social worker, contract social worker, and currently as our Director of  Social Services. Ellen contributes to administrative operations including accreditation compliance issues and provides support and guidance to our caseworkers and staff. Ellen also administers or Nigerian Primary Provider program.

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Sherrell Goolsby, Homestudy Coordinator

Sherrell is our Homestudy Coordinator. She assists our homestudy clients to gather all required documents, coordinates our contract workers, and supervises the entire homestudy process. Sherrell has worked in adoption for more than 40 years, including twenty as the director of World Child and subsequently Adoption Center of Washington. She’s been part of the Cradle of Hope team since 2013.

rosa

Rosa Taborga, Office Manager/Bookkeeper

Rosa makes sure our office runs smoothly, including paying our bills, ordering supplies, balancing our books and maintaining client accounts. Rosa has worked at Cradle of Hope since 2008.

jamie

Jamie Green, Administrative Assistant

Jamie works at our front desk and helps our Homestudy Coordinator with clerical duties and client communications. She is the warm and friendly voice you’ll hear when you call our office. Jamie has been helping Cradle families since 2018.

Our Social Workers

Michelle

Michelle Brannan
LMSW, MD

Shannon

Sharon Goforth
MSW, VA

Alyson

Alyson St. Amand
LCSW, MD

Nichole

Nicole Byrd
QMHP-C, VA

Tisheika

Tisheika Warner
LCSW, MD

Emily

Emily Heffner
MSW, VA

Michelle

Michelle Wright
MSW, VA

Janelle

Janelle Lau
MSW, VA, DC

Deborah

Debra Smith
LCSW-C, VA

Melissa

Melissa Peele
MSW, VA

Bridget

Bridget Alston
MA

Helene

Helene Casper
LCSW-C, LISW

Tiffany

Tiffany Hardy
LCSW-C, LICSW, MD

Jazmine

Jazmine Stroman
LMSW

Lori

Lori Higginbotham
LCSW-C

Sabine

Sabine Campbell
LMSW

Victory

Victory Green
LMSW

OUR MISSION AND PHILOSOPHY

Cradle of Hope’s primary mission is to provide adoption services to children in the US and overseas who are in need of permanent, loving families. We believe that every child has the right to grow up in a loving family, whose unconditional support and commitment will help him to reach his full potential. We provide our birth and adoptive families with counseling, preparation, and support throughout the adoption process and beyond. Since our staff has extensive personal and professional experience with adoption, we know the joy that adoption brings to a family. We work to ensure that building families through domestic and international adoption is a positive experience for the child and adoptive family.