No other public or private agency is positioned to provide the important cross-border child protection and family preservation services available through ISS-USA and its global network. I was introduced to ISS through my work as a law professor at the University of Iowa, and for nine years I have had the privilege of serving on the ISS-USA Board of Directors.
Along with Board meetings in Baltimore and Washington D.C. and a strategic planning retreat on Mackinac Island, my time with ISS included an International Council meeting in Australia and our 90th anniversary celebration, joined by the late Congressman John Lewis. There were excellent conferences, including one during the first surge of unaccompanied minors at the U.S. border that featured the ambassadors of Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in a conversation led by our own Susan Jacobs, who was then Special Advisor for Children’s Issues in the U.S. State Department.
As I step down, ISS-USA is in capable hands, with strong leadership and a highly talented staff. We’ve traveled much less since the world changed in 2020, but the work of reconnecting children and families remains as vital today as it has been for the past century.
-Ann Laquer Estin