About this Event
Join us at the Main Library in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, October 28, 2025 at 6:30 pm to meet the authors of Adoption Unfiltered: Revelations from Adoptees, Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents, and Allies and learn from a timely and engaging conversation on "Ethics in Adoption" with local experts in adoption.
About the Event
What is too often missed in conversations about adoption? Join the authors of Adoption Unfiltered, together with a panel of others from the Salt Lake City area with expertise in the many complexities of adoption, for an important and timely discussion around ethics in adoption. How do adoption practices and messages affect those who live and breathe adoption every day? What does the future hold for people considering adoption? How can everyone work together to bring adoption practices out of the twentieth century for the betterment of the 100 million families affected by adoption? It’s not a stretch to believe that with the benefit of information from the voices in the evening’s panel, we can re-envision healthier and ethical ways of doing adoption when it’s truly necessary.
About Adoption Unfiltered
Adoption is a complex experience with an extensive reach, affecting adoptees and their birth/first families in ways that can impact generations, as well as others in the adoption constellation. In this deeply honest and necessary book, newly released in paperback, an adoptee, a birth parent, and an adoptive parent come together to illuminate the often-unspoken realities of adoption. Drawing from their own journeys and interviews with adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, social workers, therapists, and allies, the authors reveal the complex emotions, challenges, and questions that surround adoption at every stage. Grounded in attachment science, rooted in a commitment to truth and transparency, and shaped by lived experience, this book offers vital insight and guidance for anyone affected by adoption.
Adoption Unfiltered Authors
Sara Easterly, Adoptee
Sara Easterly is author of the award-winning memoir Searching for Mom, Founder of Adoptee Voices, and a Professional Associate with the Neufeld Institute, a lens that informs Sara’s insights on the intersection of attachment, child development, brain science, and adoption. Her essays, articles, and book reviews have been widely published in outlets that include Newsweek, Psychology Today, Red Letter Christians, and Severance.
Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, Birth Parent
Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard is the Director of Advocacy and Policy at Ethical Family Building, where she works on federal and state policy issues surrounding adoption reform. She is a birth mother in an open adoption who is passionate about raising the standards in adoption to better serve all people affected by family separation. Adoption has been a monumental part of her entire life, as it is woven through four generations of her family.
Lori Holden, Adoptive Parent
Lori Holden, a veteran parent of two young adults, is an adoptive parent and adoption educator. She writes at LavenderLuz.com and hosts the podcast Adoption: The Long View. She is the co-author of The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption, written with her daughter’s birth mom and featured on adoption-agency required-reading lists across the country.
PANELISTS:
- Ashley Mitchell, Birth Parent
- Dani Zimmerman, Adoptee
- Jori Victory, Adoptee and Birth Parent
- Wes Hutchins, Adoptive Parent and Attorney
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Salt Lake City Public Library, 210 East 400 South, Salt Lake City, United States
USD 0.00
