How open are you to learning? When we know more we do better. So lifelong learning isn't something to be shunned by our impatience, but welcomed in. Listen in as Rashunda who adopted three teens from the welfare system shares her learnings on learning.

Rashunda Williams joined the CHRIS 180 team in 2023 as the Director of Foster Care and Adoptions, before being promoted to the role of VP, Community Residential Services.

Williams is responsible for the leadership and strategic direction of our community and residential programs that serve children, young adults and families, including CHRIS 180’s adoption homes, foster homes, and Summit Trail Apartments.

For more than two decades, Williams has worked in the social service sector and holds a Bachelor of Science in Social Work and a Master of Business Administration. She has extensive knowledge of psychiatric hospitals, community-based services, adolescent group homes, foster care, the juvenile justice system and the mental health spectrum. Additionally, she has experience in client-centered therapeutic services to children, adolescents and couples.

Prior to joining the CHRIS 180 team, Williams served in several leadership roles within the social service sector in Nevada, California, and Georgia.

Her professional interests are resiliency across the life span, challenges of families with limited access to mental health and healthcare services, people centric leadership, diversity and equity in the workplace, prevention services, and continued training and development of mental health professionals.

Williams enjoys traveling, interior designing, reading and is an avid community volunteer.

Find out more about Rashunda and her organisation here:

https://chris180.org/

https://www.facebook.com/CHRIS180Advocate/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/chris180/

https://www.instagram.com/CHRIS180_Advocate/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rashunda-williams-b18437202/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Are you suffering right now? It probably - or definitely - doesn't feel like it, but finding the purpose in that pain somehow makes it more bearable. The earlier we can see that purpose the sooner the pain can ease. Join Donna and I as we dive in life changing insights and shifts in perspective. Donna is an adoptive mother, executive director of an adoption agency and podcaster.

Here's a bit about Donna from her agency's website:

Donna is an irreplaceable member of our adoption agency, dedicated to aiding women who are contemplating placing their child for adoption. Helping women through an unexpected pregnancy has become her life’s journey. She is seldom “off duty.” On weekends she communicates with birth mothers to aid them with their financial concerns or traveling to a hospital to ensure they are receiving the best medical possible.

Her resolute dedication and heartfelt compassion make her an essential figure in supporting these women throughout their entire journey.

Donna ensures that every person who works at Heart to Heart Adoptions treats birth mothers and adoptive families with respect and compassion. She insists on a non-judgmental approach to every situation. She creates a safe and nurturing space for them to share their concerns, dreams, and worries. By approaching each individual with empathy and without judgment, Donna ensures that these exceptional women have the necessary guidance and resources to make well-informed decisions.

Donna’s expertise within the Utah Adoption Agency lies in her ability to find the perfect match between birth mothers and adoptive families, making her an invaluable asset to our agency.

Connect with her here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-pope-41652ba/

Explore her podcast here:

https://www.instagram.com/voicesof_adoption/reel/DLH-sYjJPf4/?__d=1

https://voicesofadoption.podup.com/

https://www.instagram.com/voicesof_adoption/

Find out more about her podcast here:

https://hearttoheartadopt.com/

https://www.facebook.com/HeartToHeartAdoption

https://www.instagram.com/hearttoheartadoptions/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Tough stuff feels, well, tough. But with hindsight it becomes clear that the tough stuff prompts our biggest learnings. What if we could see the gift of the tough stuff earlier? Be more grateful for it when we are in it? Listen in as adoptive mom Jacee shares her insights on grace, grief and learnings. Powerful.

Here's the interview with Jacee's mother.

https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/our-spirit-isnt-traumatised-with-dana-hargus

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

If you're going through tough stuff, this one's for you. Truly inspirational. Adopted at 9 months Sharon grew up in an alternative universe. One that felt completely alien to her. Her adoptive mother kicked her out of the house when she got pregnant at 18. Life got tougher until she found herself at rock bottom and attempting suicide. How did she turn it around? Listen into profound learnings from a remarkably resilient lady.

Find out more about Sharon here:

https://giftfamilyservices.com/about-gift-family-services/our-coaches/sharon-butler-obazee/

https://www.instagram.com/adoptionclarity/?hl=en-gb

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gift-family-services/

https://www.facebook.com/sobazee03/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

If you're in hell keep going. But how? Listen in as Adoption Permanency Director Alaina dives into digging deep, what empowers us to persist through the toughest of tough stuff and more...

Find out more about the company Alaina works for here:

www.enniscenter.org

https://www.facebook.com/EnnisCenter/#

Find out more about adoption support in Massachusetts here:

www.mare.org

Listen to the podcast with Jaycie on secondary trauma herehttps://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/healing-for-them-jaycie-bias

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Vince's mission is to add value to everyone he meets. Listen in and let him add value to you with his insights, learnings and wisdom. Vince and his wife have six kids, three of whom are adopted. He's also Executive Director at Keystone Family Alliance.

Keystone Family Alliance is comprised of representatives from different churches around the state of Pennsylvania. We aim to educate, motivate, and equip every Christian in the state of Pennsylvania on the needs of orphans and vulnerable children, both locally and globally. Everybody can do something to positively impact these children, and the Alliance wants to help you find YOUR something. We bridge the gap between the desperate need of the child welfare system and PA churches. Agencies and caseworkers struggle to find new foster and adoptive families to meet the current, overwhelming need. Keystone Family Alliance mobilizes Christians from around Pennsylvania. For some, it is registering to meet tangible needs of foster, adoptive, and biological families through our online portal, Gateway. For others, it is serving on an engineered Care Community to support a local family for a year. For churches, Keystone Family Alliance provides the framework and support to help churches successfully recruit families to care for children in their communities to become these much-needed placement homes. There are so many ways to do something.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vince-smith-0214808a/

https://www.keyfam.org/

https://www.instagram.com/keystonefamilyalliance/

https://www.facebook.com/keystonefamilyalliance

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

If things are looking tough right now, here's some hope for you...According to one of my mentors - Richard Wilkins "The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence" The past may explain the present but it needn't dictate the future. Join Erin and Megan as we explore hope, healing and more as we look forward to a brighter future.

Erin Argue is Heart Galleries of Texas Post-Permanency Director

Erin Argue first came to TACFS as an intern in 2022 during an MSW program at Texas State and returned as the Heart Galleries of Texas Associate Director in 2023. Before the Alliance, Erin spent her career supporting youth in foster care at member organizations, Partnerships for Children and Settlement Home for Children. There, she managed major programs, services, and projects.

Originally from the Great Lakes State, Erin graduated from Michigan State University and earned two B.S. degrees in Psychology and Environmental Geosciences.

Now, Erin lives in Austin. As a people person with a love for connection, she spends lots of time outside, with friends, and with her dog, Charlie the Bandit.

Megan Ransom is Chief Executive Officer The Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services (TACFS).

Megan joined TACFS as the Director of Community Engagement in 2019, moved into the role of Chief of Staff in 2021, and became the CEO in 2025. She came to TACFS from Partnerships for Children, an Austin-based nonprofit, where she served as the Director of Foster and Adoption Services. Megan worked closely with DFPS and many Central Texas child placing agencies and nonprofits on community education/outreach initiatives built around children in the foster care system who are waiting for adoption. She also worked at Texas CASA in the Quality Assurance Department.

She has a passion for building strategic collaborations that produce results and continuously work towards improvement of practices and partnerships to lift up the children and families involved in the child welfare system.

An Indiana native, Megan earned a BA in Sociology & Psychology from Indiana University and a Master’s of Nonprofit Management from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. She is also Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Practitioner through the Karyn Purvis institute of Child Development.

Megan and her husband are parents to two boys, both adopted through the Texas foster care system.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganshawrhoades/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-argue-2055646/

https://tacfs.org/

https://www.instagram.com/txalliancecfs/

https://www.facebook.com/texasalliance/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Secondary trauma can build up within us without us noticing. Even veteran therapist Bessel van der Kolk who's the author of the bestselling book The Body Keeps The Score wasn't aware of his secondary trauma until very recently. And secondary trauma is common amongst adoptive parents. Do you want to heal for your kids? Be triggered less often? At peace more? Listen in as adoptive mother Jaycie and Executive Director shares her learnings on healing secondary trauma, choosing love over grief and much more.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayciebias/

https://www.facebook.com/WVFosterParents/

https://wvfosterparents.org/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.