Secrets are where shame grows. And we do NOT want our kids to feel ashamed about being adopted. So how do we stop that happening? This episode is a deep dive into understanding shame and who we are underneath that shame to prevent it happening.
Alex is a single mother through adoption and a nonprofit professional with over 20 years of experience. In 2011, Alex started her journey to become a mother through adoption and finds herself, 10 years after the birth of her daughter, happily sharing her daughter's life with her birth family. Alex believes strongly in the importance of belonging and that radical inclusion is critical to spark societal change. Her professional career has been an effort to include and uplift the less resourced. She currently works at a nonprofit called Let It Be Us that recruits foster parents for waiting children and helps connect the child welfare system to ensure every child is placed in a loving home. She graduated from Williams College and University of Chicago Law School, and lives with her daughter in Chicago, Illinois. She is currently working on a memoir about her experience with open adoption, tentatively titled 'Real Mom', and has created a website, Family Love Redefined, https://www.familyloveredefined.com/ , where she posts resources and other podcasts she's done.
Alex is Deputy Director at Let It Be Us and has a wealth of experience in nonprofit management and nonprofit legal strategy and operations. As a nonprofit professional with 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, she has experience leading fundraising and operations teams, expanding and managing back-office functions, and overseeing multi-million dollar facility renovations. Alex earned a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Williams College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago. Alex has been instrumental in the development of the Let It Be Us Parent Recruitment Events. She also has extensive experience with private and state contracts. She is also a mother through adoption with a passion for reimagining how we define family and ensuring all children are in safe, healthy, happy homes.
Let It Be Us is changing the landscape of foster care and adoption in Illinois through innovative programming.
Find out more at https://letitbeus.org/
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