Svetlana Sandoval, Program Coordinator - Search, Adult Adoptees, Birth Family, and DNA Discoveries

Svetlana found Adoption Network Cleveland and attended her first general meeting just a few months following her reunion with her birth mother and was relieved to have found support and understanding for the emotional experience of reunion and coming into adoptee consciousness. This first support meeting led her to seek more connection with adoptees and quickly became immersed in the world of adoptee centered voices and advocacy. These experiences of healing with other adoptees were formative to Svetlana’s goals of supporting other adoptees navigating the emotional aspects of identity reclamation and birth family discoveries.

Svetlana is completing her bachelors of Social Work at Cleveland State University in the coming year and has spent her undergraduate social work courses focusing on adoptee led research. Svetlana is a transnational adoptee from Russia and has co-facilitated the Transitional Adoptee support group through its first year and is proud of the space she and co-facilitator Sandi have created to fill a need for transnational adoptees to connect. She has been a part of the search volunteer team specializing in non-traditional search methods for transnational adoptees.

 In her free time, Svetlana is usually looking for cultural education and immersion experiences- you can find her at Russian Cultural Garden events, watching Soviet films at home with her husband and dog, or connecting with Russian ESL learners in Cleveland for language exchange. Svetlana has been studying Russian language since her reunion and loves connecting to her heritage and family through cooking heritage recipes. Svetlana enjoys supporting other Russian adoptees' connection to their culture and has become a resource for other Russian adoptees navigating birth family search and citizenship processes.

Svetlana is thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of Adoption Network Cleveland’s team and is looking forward to learning with the leaders in adoptee advocacy!