OUR DIRECTOR, MARY LISA PISECZNY, is a wife of 30 years and a mother to three children, all whom were adopted at birth. Mary Lisa and her husband struggled through infertility in the early years of their marriage, and embraced adoption as a means to build their family. The adoptions of their two sons were completed through a New York adoption agency in 1992 and 1995. After moving to Pennsylvania, Mary Lisa was frustrated with the lack of adoption services in northeast Pennsylvania and pursued an independent adoption through an attorney for their daughter who was born in 2002. They share and nurture full open adoptions with their son’s and daughter’s birth families, which include visits as well as letters and photos (not just with birthparents and their children, but grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins too!), and are faced with the challenges of having a closed adoption with their middle child’s birth family (his birthmother’s choice).
During the last 26 years, Mary Lisa has been active in her desires of helping birth families and adopting families connect and of educating her community on positive adoption awareness and the benefits of open adoption. A Precious Gift ARC was born out of Mary Lisa’s devotion to the adoption community and the need for an open adoption agency and affordable adoption services in the northeast Pennsylvania area.
OUR NORTHEAST PA SOCIAL WORKER, JERRI REGAN, is a graduate of Luzerne County Community College with an Associate’s Degree in Human Services. She completed a Bachelor Degree in Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University, Worthington Scranton Campus. Jerri later went on to obtain a Masters in Social Work from Marywood University. She is a Licensed Social Worker in the state of Pennsylvania. Jerri’s professional career began as a teenager working at Keystone Community Resources in a residential facility with Intellectually Disabled Individuals. She held a number of positions throughout her 13 years at Keystone. She later moved on to become a caseworker at Lackawanna County Children and Youth Services. While at Lackawanna County CYS, Jerri has served in many positions. She initially held the role as a general protective services caseworker; working with families in their homes to ensure the safety and well being of their children, and working with children in foster care to reunite them with their biological families or seeing them to a plan of permanency when reunification was not an option. Jerri served as the Juvenile Court Liaison; working with children and their families who were involved with both the Lackawanna County Juvenile Court System and Lackawanna County CYS. She served in the capacity as Family Group Decision Making Coordinator; a statewide initiative that utilized the family as the point of support and as the decision makers for a plan to assist the family unit. Jerri currently serves in the capacity of Supervisor. She oversees 6 caseworkers and a homemaker who work with families in a variety of roles. Along with her career at Lackawanna County CYS, Jerri is also employed through Penn State University as a facilitator for their Strengthening Families Program and as Mobile Therapist through Kidspeace. She also serves on the Lackawanna County Center for Family Engagement Board and as a member of the Lackawanna Prosper Team.