Susan Dusza Guerra Leksander (she/her), LMFT, is a Latina first mother, transracial domestic adoptee, and licensed psychotherapist who specializes in the adoption and foster care triads, providing treatment and consultations since 2009. When Pact became a licensed full-service adoption agency in 2017, Susan was appointed its founding Agency Director and is now the Clinical Director and responsible for launching Pact’s Center for Race and Adoption Focused Therapy in 2021. She is on the ongoing complex journey of reunion with her first families and the daughter she placed for adoption.

Luna Calderon (she/her/ella), LCSW, identifies as a hybrid Latina; she was born in Brazil and raised in Mexico and the US.  She received her MSW at UC Berkeley in 1987 and has practiced social work for 34 years in settings including the Department of Public Health in San Francisco, Kaiser Permanente, and San Mateo County. Currently, she is the Training Consultant for the Latinx Center of Excellence in Behavioral Health at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare, where she is a faculty member. Luna’s work has primarily focused on young people, BIPOC, and LGBTQQI communities. Her areas of specialty are Narrative Therapy and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.

Carla Felten (she/her) is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has worked in mental health, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems in California, Colorado, and North Carolina. Her passion is supporting foster/adoptive families and she is blessed to have been mentored by adoption professionals who highlighted the need for radically inclusive and anti-racist work in the adoption field. As a biracial Black woman, Carla has experienced the duality of sharing two (competing) cultures and is committed to creating healing, safe spaces for folx to explore their own racial and/or familial identities. Carla’s current focus is working with adolescents and supporting parents/families through their adoption journeys, as well as guiding parents in becoming attachment-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally supportive and responsible.

Little M Vila-Barrett (they/them), LMFT, is a transracial adoptee from Bogota, Colombia, a BIPOC/QBIPOC activist and mental health advocate. Little is an Expressive Arts Therapist, Certified Professional Coach, and member of AAMFT and QAAMFT. Their work focuses on developing and enhancing individuals’ internal strengths, cultural identity, empowerment, and internal decolonization. Little helps people develop their own narrative, explore their unique cultural identities and engage in the lifelong work of adoption healing to facilitate finding an authentic voice and honoring their personal truth. Little was placed into a closed adoption at two years old, and continues to do trauma-healing work and “blood family-blood country” connecting work to unite with the land of their ancestors and their Indigenous culture. Little hopes to provide others with allyship and connection to their roots.

Cynthia Wright (she/her) has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker since 2011 and has worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2001, predominantly serving veterans of color and women at a behavioral health clinic in Oakland. Based on her own lived experience as a mixed-race person (African-American, European, Native American) born into the child welfare system in San Francisco, spending time in foster care before being adopted at age seven, she sees strong connections between working with people impacted by adoption and foster care and working with veterans – in both instances, people who have experienced trauma and whose lives have been affected by institutions. Her passion is working with trauma survivors, using the Seeking Safety therapy model that emphasizes coping skills, grounding techniques, and psycho-education.