Real Families: Voice, Value and Respect Regarless of Origin (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781483905648)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Diana Terrell Culver is 56 years old. She is the single mother of 10 diverse children. She had three children during her marriage and adopted seven over the last 20 years. She maintains a long term relationship . Diana's children are 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 25, 14, 10, 9 and 6. They range from gifted to intellectually disabled, with one adult child that is Seriously Mentally Ill (SMI). Diana was the kinship placement for all seven of her adopted children and her infant grandson for nine months. Four of the children were adopted privately at her expense and the youngest three were adopted through children's services. Diana's youngest grandson was adopted by another family but has regular family visits with Diana and his siblings. Diana was invited by children's services to help select his family. She is the President/CEO and Director of Kids Klub, Inc., a full service early learning center with infant, toddler and afterschool components. Diana has a B.A. in Management and an M.A. in Education from Ottawa University, specializing in Education Intervention. She is currently a PhD candidate in Advanced Studies of Human Behavior at Capella University. Diana has been self-employed for most of 37 years. She also worked in corrections following her divorce. She was a corrections officer in maximum, medium and minimum security men's prisons. She was the night counselor in Acute Psych. She was a Sergeant for two years with 36 officers and 800 inmates. She has owned Kids Klub, Inc. for 14 years and has volunteered with children in the community for approximately 40 years. Diana has also been a volunteer mediator for over 20 years and on the Foster Care Review Board and a Juvenile Justice Committee for about five years, Special Olympics for 18 years, 4-H for 8 years and the schools for 30+ years. Approximately 90% of the families served by Diana and her staff are non-traditional. Diana is and has been a subject matter expert in parenting, behavior, diversity, education, business, recruitment, training, development, retention, mediation, conflict resolution, management and security. She has been invited to host an internet radio program focused on empowering families in the near future. She does public speaking to include empowering parents to become their child's best advocate.