Rita Soronen

As executive director of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national nonprofit public charity, Rita Soronen works to find adoptive families for 150,000 children in the U.S. and Canadian foster care systems. In 2007, the foundation dedicated $12 million to grants and national awareness activities, working to move waiting children from foster care and into adoptive homes. Soronen serves on the board of directors of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and the Ohio CASA/GAL Assn. and is a fellow for the Jefferson Fellowship for Executive Leadership. She is a recipient of the National CASA Assn. Kappa Alpha Theta Program Director of the Year Award and the Angels in Adoption Award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption. A graduate of the University of Louisville, Soronen resides in Columbus, Ohio.