Mary Jo Spencer, M.P.H., R.N., C.P.N.P, has been a pediatric nurse practitioner for over 22 years and joined the University of Minnesota's International Adoption Clinic staff in 1996.  She sees children in clinic, consults with families on pre- and post-adoption issues, and reviews medical materials in the pre-adoption evaluation process. In addition, Mary Jo is co-founder of the St. Joseph's Home for Children Community Clinic and of the Fetal Alcohol Diagnostic Clinic of the University of Minnesota, a project dedicated to serving the special health care needs of children in foster care and other out-of-home placements.

In September 2011, Mary Jo traveled to Russia for Firefly, where she and Dr. Dana Johnson presented master classes in St. Petersburg and Moscow and a week-long seminar in Nizhny Novgorod focusing on the medical and developmental needs of children in foster care and how to support foster parents in order to minimize foster placement disruptions.