The Hon. Alec Haniford Deull is a Buffalo native who brings to Adoption STAR over fifteen years of child welfare experience in Washington, D.C. Before serving as a Magistrate Judge of the Family Court of the District of Columbia, Alec provided legal representation to children and families in the Washington, D.C. child abuse and neglect system for over a decade. Both of these roles involved representing all members of the adoption triad: children (from infants to teens), birth parents, and adoptive parents. Alec later secured appointment as a Special Assistant to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, for which he investigates and reports upon federal child welfare rights and issues including the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act, bullying and suicide among LGBTQ and other youth, and conditions of government detention of migrant children along our country’s southern border.