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 eventually became the foundation for my writing, speaking and professional work.
Over 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.
From lived experience to leadership.
My professional work sits at the intersection of communication, leadership, race, identity, adoption and belonging.
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 career of impact and advocacy.
Organizations & Communities
The numbers behind the story.
Let's start a conversation.
Bring Rhonda's experience, perspective and voice to your organization, event, media project or leadership conversation.
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