Rita Soronen, President & CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

For more than 30 years, Rita Soronen has worked on behalf of abused, neglected and vulnerable children, providing leadership for local, state and national efforts, working to improve the juvenile justice and child welfare systems while striving to assure safe, permanent homes for North America’s children.

Leading the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national, nonprofit public charity, since 2001 and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption-Canada since 2003, Ms. Soronen works to find permanent families for the more than 140,000 waiting children in North America’s foster care systems. Under her leadership, the Foundation provides national grants and implements life-changing programs that act on the urgency of the issue, including Wendy’s Wonderful Kids®, Adoption-Friendly Workplace and National Adoption Day. The Foundation also develops national foster care adoption awareness campaigns and resources to support the adoption journey.

Ms. Soronen is a nationally recognized child welfare advocate. She has testified before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth on the importance of foster care adoption and has served on the National Court Appointed Special Advocate/Guardian ad Litem (CASA/GAL) Association for Children’s board of trustees.