At Child Find of America, we believe no family searching for a missing child should have to face the journey alone. Our commitment extends beyond helping bring children home—we strive to support families throughout the search, reunification, and the long process of healing that follows. Few people have dedicated their lives to that mission more completely than Abby Potash.
For many parents of missing children, the first conversation with someone who truly understands their grief, questions, and the emotional toll can make all the difference. For more than two decades, Abby has been that person, offering compassion, hope, and guidance to thousands of families facing one of life’s most unimaginable experiences.
In July 1997, Abby’s 10-year-old son, Sam, was abducted by a family member. For more than eight agonizing months, Abby searched for her son while navigating the fear, uncertainty, and emotional trauma that so many searching parents know all too well. In March 1998, Sam was safely recovered after someone recognized his photograph on a postcard distributed through a national awareness campaign.
Sam’s return was a moment of overwhelming relief, but Abby has spoken candidly about how recovery brought unexpected challenges. The intense media attention, television cameras, public celebrations, and the community’s excitement were heartfelt expressions of support. Yet they also highlighted how little was understood at the time about the emotional and psychological needs of children returning from an abduction. While everyone wanted to celebrate Sam’s homecoming, Abby recognized that reunification is not a single moment—it is a complex process of healing for the child, the family, and the community. That experience profoundly shaped her understanding of what families need after a child is found and became a driving force behind her life’s work.
Shortly after Sam’s recovery, Abby attended the very first Team HOPE volunteer training. Established by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Team HOPE was created on a simple, powerful belief: no one understands the experience of having a missing child better than someone who has lived it. Abby became one of the program’s first volunteers in 1998, providing peer support to families experiencing one of the most devastating crises imaginable. She soon became Team HOPE’s director, and in that role, helped shape the program itself.
Over the years, Abby established the organization as one of the nation’s premier peer-support networks for families of missing and exploited children. She developed the volunteer training curriculum, instructed and facilitated trainings across the country, and helped prepare hundreds of volunteers to provide compassionate, trauma-informed support to families during their darkest moments.
Beyond Team HOPE, Abby became one of the nation’s most respected voices on family abduction and the long-term impact it has on children and parents. She has appeared on television programs, spoken at conferences throughout the United States, presented therapeutic approaches for helping families to mental health professionals, participated in AMBER Alert family roundtables, and assisted with reunifications between parentally abducted children and their left-behind parents. Her professional expertise is grounded not only in lived experience but also in education, earning a Bachelor of Science in Human Services from Chestnut Hill College and then later a Master of Social Work from Bryn Mawr College.
That early experience with Sam’s recovery continued to influence Abby’s advocacy throughout her career. She encouraged professionals, volunteers, and communities to look beyond the moment a missing child is found and to recognize that reunification is only the beginning of a family’s healing journey. Through her work, she has helped advance more thoughtful, trauma-informed approaches that prepare families, schools, media, law enforcement, and support systems to respond with greater sensitivity to the emotional needs of children returning home.
Although Abby retired as Director of Team HOPE several years ago, her advocacy has never stopped. Most recently, she launched the podcast Abduction: Victim to Survivor, creating another space where families, adult survivors, researchers, mental health professionals, and child-serving professionals can openly discuss the realities of family abduction. Through honest conversations with those who have lived these experiences, Abby is helping dispel the dangerous misconception that family abduction is simply a custody dispute. Instead, the podcast highlights the profound trauma experienced by abducted children, searching parents, and entire families while emphasizing hope, recovery, and healing.
At Child Find of America, we share Abby’s commitment to improving how children and families are supported after a recovery. We believe a child’s safe return is a critical milestone but not the end of the journey. Reunification is a process, and children and families deserve thoughtful, trauma-informed care that recognizes the complexities of healing after an abduction. Abby’s leadership has helped shape that national conversation, and her work continues to influence how organizations like ours support families long after they are reunited.
Her journey from searching mother to nationally respected advocate reminds us that while no one would ever choose this path, compassion, perseverance, and service can transform personal tragedy into lasting hope for thousands of others.
If you would like to reach Abby, her email is abduction.victimtosurvivor@gmail.com and her phone number is 571-412-1913. You can watch her podcast, Abduction: Victim to Survivor, on all podcast platforms.