Astrid Castro Consulting

ecutive Director and co-founder of Adoption Mosaic, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, OR. Astrid has a degree in sociology with an emphasis in adoption. For the past twenty-five plus years she has traveled the country to lead youth groups, present workshops on transracial parenting, talking with children about adoption and various other workshops focusing on adoption. Prior to creating Adoption Mosaic, Astrid worked in both the private and public sectors of various adoption organizations such the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center (ORPARC), Holt International and Rocky Mountain Adoption Exchange to name just a few. Astrid has co-authored Adoption in the Movies, which takes the reader on a guided tour of 27 movies and documentaries that are ‘dripping with adoption’ and asks questions that encourage the viewer to engage in ongoing dialogue and discussion. She has also developed an innovative, evidence-based, training DVDs titled, Adoptive Parent Training: Developing Communication Skills that demonstrates how adoptive parents can communicate openly and honestly with family, friends and especially children. Astrid is on the board of directors of the North American Council on Adoptable Children and has authored many articles on the subject of adoption including being a chapter contributor in the book Parents As Adoptees. Astrid has taken personal life experiences such as the circumstances around her adoption, being a woman of color and growing up in a white family and community, and uses these experiences as fuel to propel her professionally in her efforts to help others. Astrid is particularly aware of the benefits unbiased adoption education and services can have on an individual and his/her family. Her life-long interest in adoption is rooted in her own adoption at the age of four from Colombia (along with her older sister) http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2012/07/family_matters_adoptee_searche.html. Astrid has been in reunion since December 2012 with her birth family in Colombia.