Joan Suwalsky

Having grown up in Illinois, Joan was educated at Vassar College and Cornell University and spent her entire career as a developmental psychologist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, retiring in 2017.  There she studied normative child development and family functioning longitudinally and cross-culturally, with a special interest in families by adoption.  She and her husband Al welcomed their daughter and son home from Korea in 1983 and 1985 with the help of the Adoption Service Information Agency (ASIA) in Silver Spring, MD.  Joan worked in a volunteer capacity with ASIA for many years, serving as a member and then as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors.  She continued to serve on the Board of Directors once ASIA merged with Children’s Home Society of Minnesota.  Deeply interested in Korean culture, she was active on the agency’s Craft Sale Committee, which provided Korean art and crafts to families at the holiday sale and at Camp Rice for 25 years. 

She has traveled to Korea often, joined the Birthland Tour with her son in 2005, and has escorted many children home to waiting families in the Washington, D.C. area.  She has taught art at the ASIA Families Saturday Culture School and at Camp Rice and has spoken to parents at the Culture School several times about the adoptive journey of children and families.  Joan is the co-author of 100 Thimbles in a Box: The Spirit and Beauty of Korean Handicrafts (2016), I Bite the Bad Guys: A Tale of the Korean Tiger (2019), and The Rooftop Revelers: A Tale of the Korean Japsang (2024), all written to introduce English-speaking children, families, and teachers to the symbolism and beauty of the traditional culture of the Land of the Morning Calm.

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