Laura Radel Joins Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Board of Trustees
Columbus, Ohio — The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national, nonprofit public charity, welcomes Laura Radel as a member of its board of trustees.
Radel is retired from a career in child welfare policy with the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is currently working as a consultant in child welfare. Radel is an expert in federal child welfare programs and understands the connections between research and policy. For 35 years, she worked as a social science analyst and child welfare team lead for the Division of Children and Youth Policy within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of HHS. During her career, she led research and policy analyses that produced 140 research reports and briefs, including many related to foster care adoption. She led the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents, still the only nationally representative survey of families adopting from foster care as well as through private and international adoptions. More recently, she published research on states’ varied levels of adherence to the permanency timelines in federal law. Radel previously served on the Foundation’s Research Advisory Committee.
“There are more than 390,000 children in foster care in the U.S. and Canada. Each one of them deserves to return to their family of origin or when that is not an option, to be placed with a safe, loving, permanent and committed family,” said Radel. “The work of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is to step in when the family of origin can’t take that child back. I am excited to help guide the future of this work and ensure stability for as many youth as possible.”
“Laura’s expertise in the exact focus area of the Foundation’s mission will bring a new and critical lens to our board of trustees,” said Rita Soronen, President & CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. “Her understanding of federal policy, how research can be turned into action and deep belief that every child deserves a permanent home makes her a perfect fit to join our board.”
Through its signature program, Wendy’s Wonderful Kids®, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption provides funding to adoption agencies to support the hiring of adoption professionals, known as recruiters, who implement an evidence-based, child-focused recruitment model. A rigorous, five-year evaluation revealed that the model is up to three times more effective at serving children who have been in foster care the longest, including teenagers, children with special needs and siblings. More than 525 recruiters are urgently working across the U.S. and Canada. And with help from the Foundation’s supporters, more than 15,500 children have been adopted through the program to date.
Radel earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Bachelor of Science in politics from Princeton University.
About the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a national, nonprofit public charity dedicated to finding permanent homes for the more than 130,000 children waiting in North America’s foster care systems. Created by Wendy’s® founder Dave Thomas who was adopted, the Foundation implements evidence-based, results-driven national service programs, foster care adoption awareness campaigns and innovative grantmaking. To learn more, visit davethomasfoundation.org.
