by Gay Courter
Kelly, Gary F.
Kingsley, Gregory
Kingsley, Rachael
Kingsley, Ralph
Kirk, Thomas S. (Judge)
Kirkland family
Legal Action Project (LAP
Legal guardianship
McGee, Bradley
Mary Ellen (child abuse case; 1894)
Mays, Kimberly
Mead, Margaret
Measure of Our Success, The (Edelman)
Minimally sufficient care
National Committee for the Rights of the Child (NCRC)
National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (NCASAA)
National Evaluation of the Impact of Guardians ad Litem in Child Abuse or Neglect Judicial Proceedings (1988)
NCASAA. See National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association
NCRC. See National Committee for the Rights of the Child
Open adoption
Paddling
Padgett v. Dept. of HRS (Fla.; 1991)
Parental obligations
Parental rights termination
Gregory Kingsley case
and open adoption
Parents
bonding
psychological vs. biological
surrogate motherhood
Party status
Poertner, John
Posttraumatic stress disorder
Press, Allan,
Primary parental rights
Privileged information
Protective supervision
Punishment, corporal
Richardson hearing procedure
Runaway children
Russ, George
Russ, Lizabeth
Ryan case history
Audrey (daughter)
Catherine (mother)
Lydia (Didi; daughter)
Mark (brother)
Stuart (stepfather)
Schorr, Lisbeth B.
Secondary parental rights
Self-esteem, promotion of
Smith, William Kennedy
Soukup, David
Stability, need for
Stern, William
Stevenson family case history
Alicia (daughter)
Cory (son)
Jeremiah (grandfather)
Red (Richard; father)
Rich (son)
Tammy (mother)
trial proceedings/aftermath
Surrogate motherhood
Thorndike, Kit (Thorn)
Colby case
Ryan case
Stevenson case
Twigg family
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect
Walsh, Adam
Whitehead, Mary Beth
Who Best Represents the Interests of the Child in Court? (Poertner and Press; 1990)
Williams rule
Within Our Reach, Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage (Schorr)
Writ of Replevin
About the Author
GAY COURTER HAS WORKED CONTINUOUSLY IN FILM AND television production since graduation from Antioch College and has produced more than 200 documentary and educational films. She is author of five bestselling novels with over three million copies in print worldwide including The Midwife, The Midwife’s Advice, Code Ezra, River of Dreams, and Flowers in the Blood. Her non-fiction works include The Beansprout Book and I Speak For This Child, and How To Survive Your Husband’s Midlife Crisis.
Gay has served as a volunteer in the Florida Guardian Ad Litem program since 1989 in which she acts as the court appointed advocate for neglected and abused children. Her book about her experiences, I Speak For This Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate, brought national attention to the cause. She has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Day One, NBC Weekend Edition, and in Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor and other national publications as an expert on these issues and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Gay has also received the Child Advocate of the Year award in Florida for her work as a Guardian Ad Litem, the Sharon Solomon Child Advocate Award from the Florida Center for Children and Youth, and special recognition from the Florida Chapter of American Women in Radio and Television, Inc. for her work on Where’s My Chance? The Case for Our Children, which also won an Emmy. Gay received her second Emmy from the National Academy of Arts and Television Sciences, Suncoast Chapter, for a series of public service announcements called Solutions for America’s Children. She has been selected as one of the 10 most admired women in Citrus County twice—in the community service and arts categories. In 2004, Gay, her husband, Philip, and daughter, Ashley, jointly won the Angels in Adoption award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.
Gay is married to her collaborator in documentary films, Philip Courter. They have produced almost hundred films on child welfare topics and specialize in media about children’s issues and strengthening family. Clients include National CASA, the National Council of Family and Juvenile Judges, the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and the North American Council on Adoptable Children.
The Courters have two sons, Blake, a specialist in computer design development and engineer; and Joshua, an ethnographic filmmaker and builder/designer. In 1998, they adopted Ashley, then age 12, who spent 9 years of her life in Florida’s foster care system in 13 different placements. Ashley’s bestselling book about her experiences, Three Little Words, is in development as a feature film.
Together the Courters continue to work professionally and personally so that other children will not be lost in the system like their daughter was.
Articles, reviews and updates on the author and to purchase books in print or e-book formats: www.gaycourter.com.