J. McLane Layton, founder and President of EACH, knew since she was a 19-year-old college student that she would one day be an adoptive parent. She was deeply moved by a story of orphaned siblings who fought to avoid being placed into separate homes. After graduating from law school, McLane met her future husband Rusty, and they proceeded to build their lives and respective careers, but the story of the siblings always remained close to her heart. Nine years later, Rusty and McLane became aware of three siblings in an orphanage overseas who were in need of a loving home. The Layton's were now able to realize their longtime dream of adopting a sibling set.
It was during the adoption process that McLane began her quest for equal citizenship rights for internationally adopted children. In 1995, as she was going through the adoption process, she discovered that her children would not be automatic U.S. citizens even though both she and Rusty were U.S. citizens. "Every time I would sit down to fill out my children's naturalization paperwork, I would get offended," she recalls. It was not right that her children needed to be naturalized. They were not immigrants, but children of American citizens! Right then and there McLane decided the law needed to be changed so that her children and other foreign adopted children of American citizens would be granted automatic U.S. citizenship. It would be her mission to ensure that all internationally adopted children would have all the same rights that are awarded to children born to US citizens who are stationed or living abroad.

Her many years of experience in federal service and in the legislative arena made it possible for McLane to tap into her passion and use her legislative and legal expertise to impact the lives of adopted children and adoptive families. As Legislative Counsel to U.S. Senator Don Nickles, McLane was instrumental in researching precedent and drafting legislation for several initiatives that are important for adoptive children and families. McLane authored the Child Citizenship Act, which was passed through both houses of Congress and became law on October 30, 2000. She also wrote several other bills that remain in the legislative process and bills that she hopes, through EACH, to see come to fruition. Among those are the Natural Born Citizen Act and ICARE, the Inter-Country Adoption Reform Act.
Through the years, McLane has advocated for many families facing obstacles in the adoption process. She has been very successful in expediting the sometimes very lengthy process of uniting adopted children with their families in the U.S. Her vision is to continue this work through EACH, and her ultimate goal is to eliminate the label of immigrant, as it applies to foreign adopted children of American citizens and to make sure that all the laws of our land apply equally to adopted and biological children of Americans.

McLane's worked with Citizens and Immigration Services (CIS) with Project HOPEFUL on behalf of HIV positive children to dramatically reduce the waiting time for receiving a waiver for these adopted children to enter the U.S. The waiting time for the waiver to be processed was successfully reduced from 3 to 9 months to under 10 days!
McLane and Rusty proceeded to have 2 more children and are now a bustling family of 7 living in Virginia.

Read more about McLane's career and accomplishments: www.equalityforadoptedchildren.org