Rhonda
M. Roorda
For more than three decades, Rhonda has brought lived experience, professional leadership and storytelling together to create deeper conversations about adoption, race, identity, family and belonging.
Engagement
My story became the beginning of my life's work.
As a Black transracial adoptee, I have spent decades exploring what it means to grow up across race, culture and family — and what happens when those experiences become part of the conversations we are willing to have.
Belonging is never just one story.
My journey began with being adopted across race and growing up in a white family. That experience shaped the questions I would spend much of my life exploring: Who am I? Where do I belong? What does family mean? And what happens when race is part of the story?
Those questions ultimately became the foundation for my writing, speaking, and professional work. For more than 30 years, I have had the privilege of engaging with adoptees, adoptive families, social workers, adoption professionals, nonprofit leaders, educators, community organizations, and national adoption networks.
My work has also extended into national media and Hollywood, where I have brought lived experience and professional expertise to broader conversations through television, news, podcasts, and entertainment. Along the way, I have listened to countless stories, challenged long-held assumptions, and helped create space for more honest conversations.
From lived experience to leadership.
My professional work brings together communication, leadership, lived experience, and more than three decades of engagement across adoption and community work.
Through books, speaking, consulting, executive coaching and media conversations, I help leaders and organizations engage complex conversations with greater courage, clarity and humanity.
At the center of this work is a commitment to making space for voices that have too often been overlooked — particularly the voices of transracial adoptees.
Torn from the Root
A Memoir of a Black Transracial Adoptee
Torn from the Root brings decades of reflection, professional engagement and lived experience into Rhonda's most personal work yet.
It is a deeply personal exploration of race, identity, adoption, family and belonging — and an invitation to examine the stories we inherit, the stories we tell and the stories we choose to reclaim.
Explore the Book →A record of recognition and advocacy.
Organizations & Communities
The numbers behind the story.
Let's Start the Conversation.
Bring Rhonda's experience, perspective and voice to your organization, event, media project or leadership conversation.
Connect With Rhonda →