Filis M. Casey, J.D. is the Founder and Executive Director of the Alliance for Children, Inc. (the Alliance), a non-profit, international adoption agency located in Wellesley, Massachusetts and established in 1974. Through the Alliance, Mrs. Casey has helped create and expand over 5,000 families throughout the United States and Europe including her own, adopting her daughter Marisa at the age of three from Bogotá, Colombia in 1982.

Mrs. Casey’s leadership and direction have made the Alliance the oldest, most experienced agency in Massachusetts. She maintains the agency's midsize to ensure special consideration for each child who needs a home and personal attention to each family who wishes to welcome a child into their home.

As well as managing the Alliance's daily operations, assuming primary responsibility for communicating with the agency's longstanding international resources, and attending meetings of the Board of Directors, Mrs. Casey is the Founder, Executive Director, and Primary Fundraiser of the Alliance for Children Foundation (the Foundation). The Foundation, established in 2000 through a leadership gift from an Alliance adoptive family, is an international relief organization helping the world's most vulnerable children living in impoverished orphanages in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America to receive the most basic of all needs: food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. These children, due to their ages or special needs, are less likely to be adopted and will most likely spend their childhood and young adulthood in an orphanage with little hope for a bright future.

Along with Mrs. Casey's commitment to the Alliance and the Foundation, she is a frequent lecturer for the Open Door Society Parent Organization regarding various adoption issues; an active member of the Adoption Roundtable, a discussion group of Executive Directors whose main focus is supervising fundraising and relief efforts in an international arena; and a member of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services, the largest group of international adoption professionals worldwide.

Mrs. Casey is coauthor of Born in Our Hearts (HCI: June 2004), a collection of essays related to adoption from various perspectives, which she compiled with her daughter Marisa. Mrs. Casey has been interviewed by CNN, The Boston Globe, NPR, and the local Boston affiliates of ABC, NBC, and CBS. Mrs. Casey holds a Doctorate of Juris Prudence from Suffolk University Law School and a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts with her husband J. Robert Casey, Esq. and in her free time enjoys reading, gourmet cooking, and spending time with her children Matthew, Sarah, and Marisa.

Combining her interests in photography, nonprofit work and Latin America, Marisa Catalina Casey has photographed across the United States and Latin America. Ms. Casey's images have been published in The Providence Journal, in fundraising calendars for The Alliance for Children (the international adoption agency through which she was adopted), and in a publication she designed for CARE-Peru, an international NGO. Born in Our Hearts: Stories of Adoption, a book she co-authored with her mother, was released in June 2004 by HCI Press.

Ms. Casey graduated with honors from Brown University in 2001, where she concentrated in Latin American Studies, was President of the Photography Club, Photography Editor of The College Hill Independent, Art Editor of Issues Magazine, Creator and Managing Editor of 68? photographic journal, and contributor to various publications on campus including: The Spread, Somos, Clerestory, and the Brown Daily Herald’s POST. Her work has been exhibited in numerous group and one woman shows in Boston, Providence and New York City.

Ms. Casey was the first Latin American Studies concentrator to be awarded honors for a creative project. Her thesis, “Latin America in Abstract: A Personal Journey” consisted of an exhibition at Brown’s Salomon Center, an accompanying brochure, a multimedia presentation, as well as a lecture and discussion. Ms. Casey received grants from the Creative Arts Council and the Production Workshop to complete her project. Her thesis video and original artists books are part of the permanent collections of Brown’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. and John Hay Libraries.

Upon graduation, Ms. Casey worked as an intern at the William Randolph Hearst Foundations in New York City, through the competitive Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Philanthropy Program. At the completion of her internship, Ms. Casey received a grant from the Newton chapter of the Massachusetts Cultural Council to travel cross-country and photograph various displays of patriotism in the aftermath of September 11th.

After her trip, she returned to New York City she was chosen to participate in the Work-Scholar Program at the Aperture Foundation, a nonprofit fine art photography publisher. Ms. Casey worked as an editorial assistant in the book division before starting a position as photographer's assistant to a professional photographer in Manhattan and then returning to the Hearst Foundations as program associate for two years.

Ms. Casey continues her nonprofit work in the adoption field as Associate Director of External Relations for the Alliance for Children Foundation. She is also a masters candidate in the Program in Arts Administration at Teachers College Columbia University. She hopes to one day start a nonprofit arts organization to benefit youth. In her spare time she enjoys teaching photography and creative writing to teenagers, presenting at adoption conferences, and mentoring young people. Ms. Casey is co-director, co-producer, and subject of the documentary film, The Colombia Project: Two Stories of Adoption. Ms. Casey lives in Brooklyn Heights.

Contact Us:

Filis M. Casey, J.D.
Executive Director
The Alliance For Children
filis@allforchildren.org

Marisa Catalina Casey
Associate Director of External Relations
The Alliance For Children Foundation
marisacatalina@gmail.com