The Public is Personal
The man knows his way around a nonprofit board. For the past twenty-five years, lawyer Dan Clements has been involved in many causes he believes in. But his work on behalf of infertile couples was borne of out personal experiences.
In the mid-1980s, Clements' work to maintain independent adoptions in the state of Maryland not only led to his presidency of the local chapter of RESOLVE, the national infertility organization, but to a most important result on his life: his daughter, Lissa.
“We were dealing with our own infertility in the early 1980s,” the Baltimore attorney and Penn State alumnus recalls. “And there was legislation pending in the Maryland House that would abolish independent adoptions. I was asked by other couples if I could lobby against the bill. So we took twenty-five infertile couples down to Annapolis (the capital), and defeated the legislation.”
Clements says that once this happened, he was asked to become the new president of RESOLVE. He agreed, thinking that the
 |
Dan Clements |
position would help him and his wife to adopt a child faster. But he soon found out that his legislative efforts had already had an impact.
“A lawyer in Baltimore read about the Maryland legislation in the paper,” he says. “She contacted us about a baby girl who would be available for adoption in July of 1982. And that's Lissa.”
Although Clements had always become involved in causes he believed in, his involvement with RESOLVE came about for personal reasons. In 1985, when he was no longer chair of the local RESOLVE chapter, a couple came to him wanting to sue Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The insurance company would not cover in vitro fertilization, considering it experimental treatment.
“I drafted legislation and then took thirty-five couples to Annapolis,” he says. “We got it passed. Maryland became the first state to mandate in vitro insurance coverage in the country. More than ten others have now followed our lead.”
His work got him an invitation to join the National board of RESOLVE in 1987; a year earlier, he and his wife adopted their second child, Amy.
“Over time, because of my involvement with RESOLVE, we were offered six children through private adoption,” he says. “We took only two. But we helped place several others with people we knew.”
Clements' work has led him to involvement with other non-profits, including significant time with Planned Parenthood. In 1997, he joined the Baltimore chapter's board and helped lead a national search for a new Chief Executive Officer. He was made Chair of the board in 2002, serving a two-year term.
Currently, Clements is still involved with the organization but not as a board member. He is taking a well-deserved hiatus from, as he says, “board-serving.”