In the Spotlight: Dianne Degon

In Massachusetts alone, there are currently about 12,000 children in foster care. Dianne Degon, Nuclear Medicine Secretary here at UMass, has been a foster mother to over 50 children and has adopted 5 of those children since the age of 18. Ms. Degon’s passion radiates when she tells her story and expresses the great need for more loving foster and adoptive parents. 

She knew from very young age that she wanted to give birth to her own child, while also leaving enough room to help as many other children as she possibly could. Her ex-husband Michael shared the same passion. The news about their pregnancy with their son Ryan and the opportunity for adoption of their foster child Dori, came within months of each other. Now 20 and 21, Ryan and Dori have grown up together and know each other as nothing less than brother and sister. (Dori also works at UMass and wants to eventually foster and adopt just like her mother.)

After taking a break from fostering while Ryan and Dori were young, Dianne began taking children in again. Eventually, she was able to fight for the adoption of four siblings, something that is rare in the fostering and adoption process. Trinidy, 11, Gianna, 9, Desiree, 8, and Natalia, 6 are all Degons now.

Dianne wants people to know that although these children have been through horrible traumas in their lives, “they are just like any other children” and “helping one child makes a difference”. She has been on all sides of adoption and has seen both failures and successes, but one of her favorite things is seeing the look on new parent’s faces when they take a child home for the first time.

In 2003, Dr. Linda Sagor developed FaCES (Foster Children Evaluation Services) Clinic here at UMass Memorial. The clinic provides timely, high-quality health care to foster children from infants to 18 year olds. FaCES goal is to see foster children within 7 days of being placed with a family in order to send the child to their primary physician with proper health history documentation. Since 2003, Dianne has brought all of her foster children to the FaCES clinic at UMass.

Dr. Sagor reflects on her time spent with Dianne saying, “She is the most remarkable foster mother. She takes such great care (of her children) and is attentive to their needs. She represents the best in foster care.”

For more information about UMass FaCES program go to: https://www.umassmed.edu/faces/