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Adoption agency founded by alumna During an English class taught by Mrs. Kate Green in the early 1980s, students were asked to journal about their lives in the future. Tara Gutterman ’84 wrote about being a lawyer and adopting a child. Her vision was partly correct.
and they feel like a family. It’s very fulfilling to know you brought them together. I also enjoy hearing from birth parents later, knowing we helped them achieve their goals,” she said. As the founder of the agency, Gutterman works on legal issues as well as client development, which includes a fair amount of travel to Europe each summer to meet with adoptive families. “In addition to U.S. adoptive families, some of our adoptive parents come from many different countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, and Germany. Since it’s important for us to have a presence where our adopted children are going, I make that connection for our international adoptions,” she said.
Today, Gutterman is an attorney specializing in adoption law and is the founder of Adoption ARC, an agency serving Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and beyond. The agency will celebrate 20 years in March. After graduating from MMI, Gutterman earned degrees in English and Spanish from Bryn Mawr College and a law degree from Temple University Beasley School of Law.
She worked for the City of Gutterman believes MMI Philadelphia in the Department played a role in her professional Tara Gutterman and her son, Jonah, and husband, Tomer, celebrate of Health and Human Services development, particularly National Adoption Month at the Today show in New York. as a family law attorney and through assemblies and speech then worked for a small adoption classes. “They taught us to be confident and to speak in public, agency. In 1994, she launched her own agency, Adoption ARC. which I have to do a lot of in my work. We also learned how to “We started out small, but are now licensed in Pennsylvania, present ourselves in a professional manner.” New Jersey and Delaware,” she said. The agency has offices in “Something about MMI is very different and special. It creates Philadelphia; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; and Wilmington, Delaware. a bond with people that never really breaks and truly does create Adoption ARC works to find safe, permanent homes for children, lifelong friendships,” she said. whether with an adoptive family or a birth family that has received Her siblings, Frank Gutterman ’87 and Merle Gutterman Parker the necessary support and resources to be able to parent their ’88, are also MMI alumni. Parker is the executive director of child. The resources provided include unbiased options counseling; Adoption ARC. assistance in obtaining medical assistance and welfare benefits if necessary; access to job training and day care; and grief and loss counseling. “I want people to know that adoption is a choice that should be respected and not vilified and that all members of the adoption triad – the child, birth parents and adoptive parents – should be honored and respected,” Gutterman said. She said her interactions with a variety of people are incredibly meaningful. “The most exciting part of my job is when an adoptive parent sees their child for the first time and there’s an instant bond
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Parker noted the level of trust and admiration she has in working with her sister, saying, “I feel really blessed that I’m able to work at Adoption ARC and blessed that I get to work with my sister and such a wonderful staff.” She joined the staff full time in 2008, a few years after earning a master’s degree in counseling psychology, but has been part of the agency since its very beginning by working on newsletters and the website. Continued on page 3
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