Speakers 2024

Conference Keynotes & Speakers

Keynotes for our 2024 conference:

JaeRan Kim, Ph.D., MSW, (she/hers)
is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Washington at Tacoma. Currently, JaeRan’s research is focused on the post-adoption experience for adoptees. JaeRan is passionate about engaging in community-based projects and has been blogging at Harlow’s Monkey, which focuses on the transracial/transnational adoptee experience, since 2006.

Astrid Castro
(she/her/hers) founder/CEO of Adoption Mosaic, an adoptee-led, BIPOC woman-owned business that creates for and connects our adoption constellation community through adoptee-centered events, education courses, and consultations. For over three decades, Astrid has served the adoption constellation through a variety of innovative programing designed to highlight the adoptee experience. Prior to creating Adoption Mosaic, Astrid worked in both the private and public sectors of various adoption organizations such the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center (ORPARC), Holt International and Rocky Mountain Adoption Exchange, to name just a few. Astrid is aware of the benefits of post-adoption services for individuals and their families and seeks to bring these services to the adoption community. Her life-long interest in adoption is rooted in her own adoption at the age of four from Colombia (along with her older sister). Astrid has been in reunion since December 2012 with her birth family in Colombia.

Friday's Speakers

Max Weinberg has been a teacher and administrator in New York and Illinois schools. Max currently consults school leadership teams in Chicago and Milwaukee to maximize outcomes. He appreciates the complexity of schoolhouses and the varied learning that happens in classrooms and beyond. Max is an adoptive parent with his partner to two wonderful children. His family is a transracial adoptive family living outside of Chicago. Max's personal and professional life intersect through research on understanding optimal conditions and practices for supporting adopted/looked after children in school. He is a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Leadership at Concordia University Chicago.