Monday Evening Speaker Series
Adoption Network Cleveland is pleased to offer a VIRTUAL Monday Evening Speaker Series full of topics that are of interest to a broad audience impacted by adoption, kinship, and foster care. These programs are made possible by donors and presenters volunteering their time and they thrive thanks to the active participation of attendees.
Upcoming Presentations
Monday, January 27, 2025
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Memoir Monday: Growing Up Adopted, Adored, and Afraid with author and adoptee, Janice Jones
Janice Jones reads vignettes from her memoir, Dr. Beare’s Daughter, that illustrate how being adopted caused her to silence her own voice in her struggle to be that elusive, golden child she believed her parents really wanted—their own. She shares insights into life as an adoptee, that she gained from writing her story, and how publishing it finally gave her real self a voice in the world and helped her become whole. She invites questions and offers encouragement for participants to share their own stories as part of a healing journey.
About Janice
Janice Jones was adopted in 1947 at age four-and-a-half months by charismatic doctor and surgeon, Ralph Beare and his socialite wife, Lou, of Celina, Ohio. Jones grew up as a lonely, only, privileged child who found herself an outlier in her family and at school. While her adoption was no secret, discussing it was taboo. To be curious was to be ungrateful. When she was often reminded by those who admired her parents, that she was a lucky girl to been adopted by such wonderful parents, she could only smile while thinking, You don’t know what it is like to live with them.
As an adult, Jones has had a long career as a freelance writer and editor. She has also been a dog-obedience instructor, children’s book buyer for a large, independent bookstore, and inventor of jigsaw puzzles that teach reading skills to children. The two things she values most in life are truth and connection to others. She considers the world at large to be her big, human family. Dr. Beare’s Daughter: Growing Up Adopted, Adored, and Afraid is her fourth published book.
Monday, February 10, 2025
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM ET
Trauma of Separation and How It Manifests in Developmental Stages with Astrid Castro
This discussion will explore how being separated from birth parents affects adoptees at different stages of their lives. The facilitator will discuss how this early trauma manifests in various ways as adoptees grow from infants to adults; including forming relationships and understanding their identity. Through expert insights and personal stories, this discussion will reveal the long-term effects of early family separation and how adoptees cope with these complex experiences over time.
About Astrid
Astrid Castro (she/her/hers) is the founder and CEO of Adoption Mosaic. Adoption Mosaic is an adoptee-led, BIPOC woman-owned business that seeks to build an inviting adoption conscious community by providing innovative adoptee-centered programs and support. Astrid has a degree in sociology with an emphasis in adoption. Since 1992, she has traveled the country to present workshops on transracial parenting and talking with children about adoption, to lead adoptee youth groups, and various other workshops focusing on adoption. Astrid has also worked in both the private and public sectors of various adoption organizations. Astrid’s life-long interest in adoption is rooted in her own adoption at the age of four from Colombia (along with her older sister). She has been in reunion with her birth family in Colombia since December 2011.
Monday, February 24, 2025
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM ET
Wounds Heal. They Become Stories with Monica Hall
Join Monica Hall, author of Practically Still a Virgin, adoptee, and birth mother, as she takes us on a powerful journey of reckoning with the past to reclaim her future. In this intimate talk, Monica shares how she unpacked the abuse and trauma of her childhood and early teen years — a process guided by the sharp insight of a developmental editor who asked the questions her younger self never could.
From the chaos of Alaska’s 1970s oil boom to revelations uncovered in Washington, California, Canada, and Michigan, Monica reveals the secrets, surprises, and heartbreak that shaped her path toward hope and redemption. Attendees will gain insight into the transformative power of storytelling, the emotional depth of memoir writing, and the courage it takes to face the truths hidden in plain sight. Don't miss this moving exploration of resilience, identity, and self-forgiveness.
About Monica
Monica Hall was born in Canada, adopted by American parents, and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She spent the first sixteen years of her life there and had many of the foundational experiences that drive her writing. She has founded several successful companies and currently works in marketing. Monica is also a speaker, and life coach. In March 2024 she published her first memoir titled, Practically Still a Virgin: An Adoption Memoir. The book has been met with acclaim and has over 100 5-star reviews on Amazon. She now travels and speaks to groups about writing their stories. She has three grown children and lives in Sacramento, California.
Monday, March 3, 2025
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Becoming Enough with JJ Rett
How do we get to the place where we believe we are enough? Amidst a childhood filled with abuse, lies, and shame JJ Rett developed a powerful sense of intuition and inner drive. She will discuss the ways in which she coped with being raised by an abusive parent, navigated her “late-discovery adoptee” identity, and repaired connections with her biological and adoptive families.
Her journey through the many traumas and breakthroughs she has experienced, from the circumstances that led to her relinquishment, to the day she learned that she was adopted twenty years prior, to living in reunion with both sides of her biological family, has brought her to a place where she now shares her insights and various healing modalities with others. She hopes that by sharing her story, others may be empowered on their own paths and, along the way, uncover their present and future selves.
About JJ
JJ Rett is a certified life coach who finds much of her joy in working with other members of the adoption constellation as they navigate their own experiences. She is a volunteer with Adoption Network Cleveland and has been a member since 2015, when she and over 400,000 other Ohio adoptees were granted access to their original birth records.
Prior to her work as a coach, JJ was the Assistant Director of Admissions at The Juilliard School. She holds a B.F.A in Stage Management from Wright State University and earned her coaching certification from Upbuild in 2024. JJ is living in reunion with both sides of her biological family and currently lives in Dayton, OH with her husband and three young children.
