Welcome to the ATTACh 2026 Conference!

Here you’ll find all the essential details for registration, conference program, hotel info, resources, and information for sponsors and presenters.

2026 Keynotes Announced!

Thursday Keynote

Dr. Jonathan Baylin

Dr. Baylin received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in 1981. He has been working in the mental health field for more than 50  years. For the past 25 years, while continuing his clinical practice, he has immersed himself in the study of neurobiology and in teaching mental health practitioners about the brain. He has given numerous workshops for mental health professionals on “Putting the Brain in Therapy”.  About 17 years ago, Dr. Baylin began a collaborative relationship with Dan Hughes, a leader in the field of attachment-focused therapy. Their book, Brain Based Parenting, was released by Norton Press in the spring of 2012 as part of the Norton series on Interpersonal Neurobiology. Later, in 2016, Norton published their second book, The Neurobiology of Attachment-focused Therapy.  Currently, they are writing a second edition of Brain Based Parenting.   Dr. Baylin has delivered keynote sessions at international conferences and has also given numerous workshops both internationally and regionally within the USA focusing on developmental trauma and implications for treating children and adults with histories of extreme early life stress.

Friday Keynote

Angela Tucker

Angela was born in Tennessee and raised in Washington State. She was adopted from foster care with a diagnosis of spastic quadriplegia and was labeled a “failure to thrive.” Drawn to providing for her medical needs, her adoptive parents welcomed her into a large family with seven other children who were also adopted specifically to support their unique disabilities. Despite challenges, Angela defied doctors’ predictions and ended up learning to walk at a later age and then going on to play collegiete basketball and track. Her profound hearing loss was mitigated with hearing aids when she was just five years old, which she has come to embrace and proudly wear as a fashion accessory.

While studying Psychology at Seattle Pacific University, Angela began blogging to explore her experiences growing up in a closed adoption. In 2013, she located her biological parents and captured the reunion on film, which was initially intended as personal footage. Her husband, Bryan Tucker, recognized its impact and created CLOSURE, a documentary that premiered on Netflix.

After touring with the documentary in 2013, Angela launched The Adopted Life Episodes, a pioneering video series that elevates the experiences of teenage transracial adoptees, discussing issues of racial identity, biological family relationships, and the complexities of unknown heritage. Her 2020 podcast, The Adoptee Next Door, breaks adoption stereotypes and provided adoptees a platform to reshape public understanding.

In 2022, she founded the Adoptee Mentoring Society, a non-profit providing virtual mentorship for adoptees, by adoptees. Her book, “You Should Be Grateful:” Stories of Race, Identity and Transracial Adoption was published by Beacon Press in 2023.

Saturday Keynote

Dr. Jaiya John

Dr. Jaiya John was orphan-born on ancient Indigenous Anasazi and Pueblo lands in the high desert of New Mexico, and is an internationally recognized freedom worker, poet, novelist, author, and speaker. Jaiya is the founder of Soul Water Rising, a global rehumanizing mission to eradicate oppression. The mission has donated thousands of Jaiya’s books in support of social healing, and offers grants to displaced and vulnerable youth. He is the author of numerous books, including Daughter Drink This Water, We Birth Freedom at Dawn, Fragrance After Rain, and Freedom: Medicine Words for your Brave Revolution. Jaiya writes, narrates, and produces the podcast, I Will Read for You: The Voice and Writings of Jaiya John, and is the founder of The Gathering, a global initiative and tour reviving traditional gathering and storytelling practices to fertilize social healing and liberation. He is a former professor of social psychology at Howard University, and has spoken to over a million people worldwide and audiences as large as several thousand. Jaiya holds doctorate and master’s degrees in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a focus on intergroup and race relations. As an undergraduate, he attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and lived in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he studied Tibetan Holistic Medicine through independent research with Tibetan doctors and trekked to the base camp of Mt. Everest. He is a Lewis & Clark College Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. His Indigenous soul dreams of frybread, sweetgrass, bamboo in the breeze, and turtle lakes whose poetry is peace.

Dr. John’s book titles include We Birth Freedom at Dawn, Volumes One and Two, Dear Artist, All These Rivers and You Chose Love, No Man Came, Fragrance After Rain, Freedom: Medicine Words for Your Brave Revolution, Your Caring Heart: Renewal for Helping Professionals and Systems, Daughter Drink This Water, Calm: Inspiration for a Possible Life, Sincerity of Sunlight, Fresh Peace, Legendary: A Tribute to Those Who Honorably Serve
Devalued Children, Beautiful: A Poetic Celebration of Displaced Children, Reflection Pond: Nurturing Wholeness in Displaced Children, Clear Moon Tribe, The Day Jumoke Found His Name, Father to Son: Ode to Black Boys, Habanero Love: A Poem of Sacred Passion, Lyric of Silence: A Poetic Telling of the Human Soul Journey, and Black Baby White Hands: A View from the Crib.

TESTIMONIAL

Your powerful presentations, genuine kindness, and compassion to our students and staff resonated throughout. Personally, it lifted my spirits and energy to continue the quest. I have listened to many presentations in the 20+ years of my educational experience and believe the presentation you gave to our students during the Hunger Banquet exceeded all of them in power, inspiration, and wisdom. I felt I was in the presence of some of the great figures of our global history, and as I reflected on the evening I imagined it must have been similar to hearing Martin Luther King, Jr. or Nelson Mandela. I genuinely mean every word.
— Trent Derrick, Administrator, Lakeland High School, Rathdrum, Idaho

 CE information coming soon!