Our Team

Debbie and Sophie, who founded Trace My Story, are based in Ireland but have been working in Russia for decades. They know the country extremely well and have chosen the team in Russia & the US carefully, taking much into consideration.

Yana leads our American team. She was adopted from Russia by an American family in the 1990s, she understands firsthand the importance of reconnecting with one's roots.

Our small team of dedicated staff in Russia think with a Russian mindset while also having years of Irish and international training in childcare. They have years of hands on experience with broken families, and with young mothers living in hardship.

Our team fully understand the fragility of tracing. We fully understand the respect and discretion needed for all parties concerned, including the birth mother’s situation and her wider family.

We have visited tiny villages hours from the nearest road, we have visited prisons, we have found grandmothers when mothers are not able to meet, we have found siblings, we have visited graveyards of old relatives. We promise to do absolutely everything we can to help fill you in the blanks and piece together your story.

We understand the empathy needed for this journey and we hope to support you from start to finish.


  • Founder

    Debbie has been working in Russia for over 30 years.

    She is used to a world of broken families, damaged hearts, life long searching for family. She truly believes that children need to know their full story, no matter what that is. She believes in strengthening all family bonds where and when possible and has always tried to do this for the children she worked with. 

    Sometimes the mother or father are lost but there may be a grandmother or a sibling and sometimes this fills the attachment wound, not always but in many cases it is a huge help. 

    Debbie has many awards for her work, too many to mention, but among them and relevant to her new venture include the Social Change Award given by the Governor of St Petersberg (2018), Women Mean Business Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2014), International Person of the Year (2013), Honorary Medal First Degree given by the Governor of Bryansk (2010), and finally , The Order of Friendship awarded by the President of Russia (2019) where she stood on the Kremlin stage and spoke to millions worldwide on Russian TV about the need to close the last of the orphanages in Russia, supporting families in raising their own children.

    Debbie has a Diploma in Child Psychology from Dublin Business School. She has completed courses in Trauma Informed Training, Attachment, and Safety First for Children. And with over 30 years of hands on experience this is her field of expertise.

    She is an author of children's books, has done much TV, radio and media, and has a given a TEDx talk about her work.


  • US Lead

    Yana brings a unique blend of personal experience and professional expertise to her role as the American lead for Trace My Story. As someone who was adopted from Russia by an American family in the 1990s, she understands firsthand the importance of reconnecting with one's roots. Her lifelong curiosity about her heritage inspired her to dedicate her career to supporting adoptive families and individuals seeking to reunite with their birth families.

     

    While pursuing her undergraduate degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Yana spent a transformative summer working with orphans and foster care families in Eastern Europe. Her academic focus culminated in a thesis on international adoptions from Russia, deepening her understanding of the complexities surrounding cross-border family connections.

    With both personal insight and professional knowledge, Yana is passionate about empowering families through Trace My Story’s mission to unite loved ones across continents, and helping families take the first step in navigating the emotional and logistical journey of reconnecting with their past.


  • Office Manager

    Sophie is our experienced office manager.

    Sophie has been working in Russia for many years, in fact she spent a full year there as a teen, living and volunteering in an orphanage. She has remained in contact with the children she worked with right through her life, many still sharing the details of  their lives with her.

    Sophie has been involved in many tracing stories with her mum Debbie. She fully understands life in Russia, the hardships for the young mothers who gave up their babies, the sensitivities of different situations, and the value of connecting family. 

    Over the years Sophie has seen so much happiness when family members have been connected or reunited, but also has seen how it should not be done and agrees that more care needs to be taken when finding birth families.

    Sophie’s backround is in education and training, she has additional training in trauma, attachment, and holds a diploma in psychology.  Never allowing any detail escape her Sophie is uniquely qualified to co ordinate all the delicate threads of your tracing story.