Natalie Wimberly (left) and Jennifer Brundage (right)
It’s Not Goodbye, It’s See You Later
Long-time Affiliations team members Jennifer Brundage and Natalie Wimberly have accepted new positions within the Smithsonian and will soon be embarking on the next phase of their careers. We sat down with them to ask a few questions and have them reflect on their time with Smithsonian Affiliations. Here’s the full interview and some fun photos from the past decade (or more!).
Tell us about your new role…
Natalie: I’m excited to be stepping into the role of Administrative Management Specialist at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in the Repatriation Office. It’s quite the shift — from working closely with educational programs and community partnerships to supporting science-focused initiatives — but I’m looking forward to the challenge. Plus, who wouldn’t want to work near dinosaurs?
Natalie Wimberly and Penne Kirkpatrick leading a session at the 2024 Affiliate Directors’ Summit in Washington, D.C.
Jennifer: I will be co-leading the initiative to cultivate Regional Collaboratives within the Office of the Undersecretary for Education (OUSE), which will kick off in 2026 for the U.S. semiquincentennial. The challenge is to weave together the Institution’s many national partnerships and co-create sustainable collaborative frameworks with them that will mark new ways for the Smithsonian to be in service to communities for the next 250 years.
What will you miss about Affiliations?
Jennifer Brundage on one of her many visits to Affiliates. Here she’s at the Senator Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, PA.
Jennifer: Well…I won’t say ‘miss’ per se, because we already know how crucial Affiliates are to this new initiative. Working in Affiliations has taught me again and again about the power of relationships built on trust, candor and authenticity. I will bring that spirit of camaraderie and collaboration with me as our networks expand and intertwine. I also love when lines blur between professional and personal relationships. I feel lucky that so many Affiliate colleagues feel comfortable texting me, coming over to my place for dinner, cycling or sailing together and more. So many Affiliate colleagues are dear friends as well, and I’m grateful those bonds can continue. My email address and cell number remain the same!
Natalie: Oh, where do I start? I’ll definitely miss the day-to-day work of managing the membership program, handling procurement tasks by issuing funds to Affiliates for their program participation, and creating those annual Affiliate fee invoices (yes, even that!). But most of all, I’ll miss the incredible connections I’ve made with my colleagues and our Affiliate partners. Working alongside such passionate people has been the heart of my Affiliations experience.
Natalie Wimberly at the National Museum of American History during a Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference.
How do you hope to stay connected with Affiliations?
Natalie: I’m not venturing far — just a short walk across the National Mall — and I absolutely plan to stay connected. Whether it’s possibly collaborating on future projects, or perhaps exploring ways NMNH Human Dignity Team can engage with Affiliates, or just catching up at the next conference, I’m excited to keep those connections strong.
Jennifer: Luckily, my new desk is only 4 floors away from the Affiliations team, in the same building! As the Secretary always says, the Smithsonian’s greatest asset is its people. So true! And I maintain that the staff of Affiliations is a truly exceptional standout at the Institution. Their passion, work ethic, integrity, teamwork and relationship skills are second to none (and I’ve been here a loooong time.) I may be in another office, but I expect to see them all frequently in meetings and on the road, as we together craft an infrastructure of expanded outreach across the country.
Nicole Bryner will be transitioning back into the National Outreach Manager role and supporting the Affiliates in Jennifer’s portfolio. While we determine who the contact will be for Natalie’s projects—Affiliate Membership Program and invoicing—please email your National Outreach Manager or affiliates@si.edu. While we are sad to see Jennifer and Natalie go, we hope you’ll join us in wishing them luck in their new roles. See you soon, Jennifer and Natalie!
The Affiliations team in 2023. A small, but mighty team working hard on behalf of our Affiliate and Smithsonian colleagues to share their work nationwide.
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One of the benefits of being a Smithsonian Affiliate is the access to Smithsonian scholarship and its scholars. In 2025 we are reviving our “Five Questions With…” series to introduce our Smithsonian Affiliate network to the incredible staff working hard for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge” at the Smithsonian.
In this post, we interviewed Alexandra Lord, chair of the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and asked her to share what inspires her about her work and how she hopes to connect with communities in 2025.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you got to the Smithsonian. I became interested in the history of medicine even before I knew there was such a thing! As a kid, I loved books like The Secret Garden, Little Women, and the Little House books but I was really puzzled by all the references to diseases I had never heard of such as cholera, tuberculosis, and scarlet fever. In college and then in grad school, I opted to study how people in the past experienced illnesses and how physicians and nurses cared for patients before they understood how diseases spread.
After grad school I became the historian for the U.S. Public Health Service (2001). While working at the PHS, I became really interested in preservation—in part because the hospitals on Ellis Island, which are linked to the Public Health Service, were being renovated. And so, in 2008, I applied to become the Branch Chief for the National Historic Landmarks Program, the National Park Service’s premier preservation program. I loved working with local communities to preserve their historic and archaeological sites. But in 2015, after I had been at the Park Service for 7 years, the Smithsonian advertised for a historian to oversee their history of medicine and science collections. The opportunity to work with the Smithsonian’s amazing history of medicine collections made me realize how much I had missed the opportunity to focus on the history of medicine. I’ve been here ever since, and I have yet to grow tired of exploring our collections!
Ramses Condom, 1930s. Julius Schmid worked in a sausage factory before deciding to begin marketing condoms. By the 1930s, his company, which produced these condoms, dominated the market and he was called “The Condom King.”
Why is your area of interest important? In a time when we are very divided, one thing unites us: we all know what it’s like to be sick. But while being ill is one of the most universal human experiences, we rarely ever think about what it was like to be sick in the past—before vaccination, before antibiotics, and before we even understood how diseases spread. This may be because when we are sick, we tend to be too miserable to think about the past! But epidemics and diseases have shaped the outcomes of wars, immigration policies, politics, our workplaces and, much more importantly, our families. Today, we live in a world in which diseases are heavily controlled and contained so it’s easy to forget how diseases shaped the past. But, as we saw with the COVID-19 pandemic, diseases still pose a threat. Understanding how people responded to diseases and epidemics is key to understanding not only our past but also our present and future.
What inspires you, excites and challenges you about your job or department? The National Museum of American History has over 100,000 objects related to the history of medicine and science. Our collections range from an 18th-century obstetrical kit to 19th-century patent medicines to 20th-century artificial hearts. Caring for, and adding to, this collection is an ongoing struggle. Like all museums, we don’t have enough storage space, so we think very carefully about what we are collecting—and we need to periodically review what we have collected. It’s a difficult challenge but an interesting one as it pushes us to explore and think deeply about the material culture around medicine and the people who have used these objects.
Face Shield (COVID-19) Pamela Mossinghoff Tures, a glass artist in Virginia, designed and made this “Fish Tank” plastic shield face mask. She created the mask as part of a contest for the “best mask” at a conference she attended in Florida in May of 2021. Her “Fish Tank” mask, which she said reflects the confined nature of quarantines, won.
Tell us about something in your recent work you are particularly proud of and why. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we asked people across the country to contact us and share their pandemic stories. We also asked them to tell us what they thought we should collect to document this story. We got a huge response (we are still receiving responses!). Many Affiliates worked with us, both in thinking about how we should collect and how we should tell this story. Working together with Affiliate museums enabled us to ensure that objects went to the best homes, whether that was the American History Museum or an Affiliate organization. We especially loved working with Affiliates on our Pandemic Perspectives virtual programming. These programs ranged from the light-hearted (“How to Look Good on a Zoom Call,” for example, highlighted historic make-up and personal care products) to the more serious (“Race and Place” which explored the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793). Our audience especially loved the program we did which highlighted how several Affiliate museums were collecting around the pandemic. We loved it, too, because we learned a lot about how museums were thinking about this work across the country.
Sphagnum Moss Mustrual Pad, c. 1920s. During World War I, nurses and physicians discovered that sphagnum moss was especially effective at absorbing blood. In the wake of the war, Sfag-Na-Kins began using sphagnum moss to create and market disposable menstrual pads. While Sfag-Na-Kins did not achieve market dominance, the idea of replacing cloth menstrual rags with disposable pads became widespread in the 20th century.
We are always looking to share people and resources with our Affiliate network, what would you like to share with them or what specifically would you love to talk about in a speaking program hosted by an Affiliate? I love to share our collections and their stories. I’m especially interested in speaking to and hearing from audiences across the country about their experiences with the stories listed below:
Sex Education/Reproductive Health: Why has sex education been so controversial since its beginnings in the 1890s? How has the battle over birth control as well as the fight to contain sexually transmitted diseases shaped American culture and history?
Women’s Health: Why have issues related to women’s health been neglected? How have changing ideas about women shaped the practice of medicine?
Infectious Diseases/Vaccines: How do we experience infectious diseases differently from our ancestors? Why has vaccination been so controversial?
Collecting Around COVID-19: How will we tell the story of COVID-19? In 2020, the National Museum of American History issued a call to Americans to hear their stories about the pandemic. We are still collecting around this story, and we would love to engage in a discussion about this with Americans across the country.
Mourning Rituals: Why were the Victorians so obsessed with death? How did changing ideas about religion and science, along with new technologies, change how nineteenth-century Americans understood death?
Thank you to Alexandra for sharing a little about her work with us. As Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III said in a recent Smithsonian magazine article, “One of the reasons I agreed to become Secretary years ago was because of my profound respect for the amazing work of my colleagues.” The Smithsonian “is a collection of amazing people who do work that sometimes is not understood, sometimes that is undervalued, but it’s work that as Secretary, I see as essential to a nation understanding itself.” We hope you enjoyed meeting one of these amazing people and hope you’ll stay tuned for more Five Questions With… interviews this year.
If you are a Smithsonian Affiliate interested in inviting Alexandra to your neighborhood this year, please fill out this Speaker Interest Form and an Affiliations team member will be in touch to discuss in more detail.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpg00FingarEhttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgFingarE2025-01-28 14:18:242025-01-28 14:18:25Five Questions With…Alexandra Lord
You may remember receiving the Smithsonian Insider digital communication in your inbox twice per year, in addition to the Affiliate Collaborator newsletter. We are streamlining our communications and combining the publication of the Insider with the Collaborator. Instead, you’ll receive high-level Smithsonian news, Smithsonian strategic initiatives, and highlights from the work of Smithsonian scholars and experts in your regular Affiliate Collaborator newsletter. We hope this reduces the number of emails in your inbox while still bringing you opportunities and resources from the Smithsonian in a more concise digital communication.
SMITHSONIAN STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
The Human Remains Task Force, established in 2023, completed its work and submitted their recommendations to Secretary Bunch in January 2024. The thirteen-member task force was assembled to make policy recommendations to the Secretary concerning human remains in the custody of the Smithsonian. The full report is now published and available to the public. In sum, the task force recommends the Smithsonian develop a policy regarding the treatment and return of human remains in its care consistent with principles set forth in the report. Read the full report.
SMITHSONIAN IN THE NEWS
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has announced the names and estimated opening timeline for the final 12 galleries to open as part of the renovation of its building in Washington, D.C.
World War I: The Birth of Military Aviation Gallery Rendering. Smithsonian Institution.
SMITHSONIAN STAFF UPDATES
Welcome to new Smithsonian leadership:
Elizabeth C. Babcock, director, Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum (effective June 3)
Sanchita Balachandran, director, Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute (effective April 8)
Dalila Scruggs, Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art (effective April 22)
Look for this Smithsonian Insider icon in the Affiliate Collaborator and catch up on news coming from the Smithsonian. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about anything you see in one of these posts, please let us know.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpg00FingarEhttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgFingarE2024-03-26 09:04:452024-03-26 09:04:45Smithsonian Insider: Spring 2024
Did you know that the Smithsonian sunburst is one of the most widely recognized brands in the U.S., and our Affiliates are the only organizations authorized to use a special sunburst logo in their materials? It’s true!
As an exclusive benefit of being a Smithsonian Affiliate, your organization can use the Smithsonian Affiliate logo or taglines for marketing materials, brochures, and signs. It’s a great way to show your association with the Smithsonian to your visitors and stakeholders. So, as a refresher or a quick intro, here’s an overview of the logos you are approved to use, how to use them correctly, and a few other tips. This information is always accessible on our website on our Logos & Taglines page, and the Smithsonian Affiliations team is also always happy to chat with you if you have any questions.
What logos are approved to use?
There are two logos approved for Affiliate use:
Smithsonian Affiliate logo
Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Program logo (ONLY for those Affiliates participating in the membership benefit, however the same rules and guidelines apply)
The Smithsonian Affiliate logo can be used on marketing materials, websites, newsletters, brochures, and more. If you are considering the logo for any fundraising, donation, or giving material, please contact the Smithsonian Affiliations office first. Generally, the Smithsonian Affiliate logo may not be used on fundraising material, but please reach out to us to see if it may be an appropriate case.
The Smithsonian Affiliate logo has been updated to emphasize the Smithsonian connection. The word “Affiliate” is italicized in the lockup to indicate the association with the Institution. If the logo you are using does not have this lockup, please contact us to receive an updated logo package.
Where do I find the logos?
The Smithsonian Affiliate logo can be requested from the Smithsonian Affiliations office. Please contact your National Outreach Manager or email Affiliates@si.edu to obtain the logo package. All logo and/or tagline use must be reviewed and approved by the Affiliations office.
What are the approved taglines?
Smithsonian Affiliates may choose to use one of two taglines if using the logo is not appropriate on your material. The taglines “In Association with the Smithsonian” or “A Smithsonian Affiliate” can be used as an alternative to the logo. Please note, if including the tagline in your own logo lockup, you must retain a version without a Smithsonian mention should your logo ever be used for any fundraising material.
May I use the logo and tagline together?
No. The logo and tagline are two separate marketing items for Affiliate use, they should not be used in the same visual lockup or sentence.
Are there any specific tips for Affiliates?
Yes! Check out these tips and documents to help guide you in communicating about your Affiliation:
Talk to your National Outreach Manager to discuss how you may be considering applying the logo or tagline to your material.
Send us drafts! Not only do we love to see your material, you must receive approval from the Smithsonian Affiliations office prior to any use of the Smithsonian name and/or logos. Send your drafts to Elizabeth Fingar, Communications and Professional Development Manager- FingarE@si.edu.
What else should you keep in mind?
Everything must be approved by the Affiliations office. Please do not use the logo or tagline without first checking with us. We have a very quick turnaround time for approvals and will work with you to meet your deadlines.
The Smithsonian is always Institution, never Institute.
The sunburst should never appear dark or clash with any other colors in your design.
The logo cannot be used as part of a sentence.
The logo cannot be altered in any way.
This may seem daunting, but your team at Smithsonian Affiliations will work with you! We are here to help you align your organization with the Smithsonian brand and show your audiences and stakeholders how you are connected to our network of Smithsonian collaborators. If you’d like a refresher, please contact us and we’ll be happy to schedule a call to talk about co-branding and other ways to collaborate to share the incredible work you are doing in your communities.
Many thanks to Eli Boldt, 2023 Smithsonian Leadership for Change intern, for this guest post. Boldt was one of several interns identifying and writing stories about underrepresented topics for Smithsonian Affiliations. This is one of two stories they completed this summer.
One of the tactile displays in the exhibition which, when the silver button is pressed, releases an odor of bread baking. Photo by Eli Boldt.
The Molina Family Latino Gallery, which opened in June 2022, is a precursor to the National Museum of the American Latino. The museum, legislated by Congress in 2020, is still in development and currently has exhibition space at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The Molina Gallery is a taste of what the museum will be: it represents the many varied histories of the Latino experience in America and the way Latino culture and figures have impacted and shaped the United States.
The exhibition was developed using a design model called I.P.O.P., a framework for building a content strategy focusing on Ideas, People, Objects, and Physical experiences. This allows the content to be diversified across the exhibition. Some people connect more with objects, while others connect with pictures and stories of people. Some people benefit heavily from having physical experiences, which tactile objects help to do.
Making an exhibit accessible is a balancing of the many types of people who are coming into the space. To design with accessibility in mind means finding the sweet spot where information is available and accessible to the most amount of people.
Under the direction of Elizabeth Ziebarth,Access Smithsonianhelped bring the gallery’s vision for inclusive design to fruition. Leading a small but mighty team—Ziebarth is both director of Access Smithsonian and head diversity officer at the Smithsonian—the staff strives “for consistent and integrated inclusive design that provides meaningful access” in all their work. Ziebarth identifies making a space accessible to the blind as the most challenging.
“My rule of thumb is that if I can make something accessible to people who are blind or have low vision, I could probably make everything else accessible. The most challenging part of the design is to take something that is visual and make it into something that can deliver the content and the experience to somebody who can’t see it,” Ziebarth said.
One of the QR codes that can be scanned for visual descriptions. Photo by Eli Boldt.
Ways the gallery took on the challenge was creating a shoreline, a perimeter of cases around the middle. People who use canes can tap their way through and follow the path. There are cues and raised tabs on the ground to identify where QR codes, which pull up audio narration, are located. The gallery makes use of tactiles to tell the story as well. Tactiles are objects that are meant to be touched and interacted with. The museum shows a clay figurine and invites visitors to touch. There is a button that releases the smell of bread, another that plays the sounds of Domino Park, Miami, and releases the smell of coffee. There are audio descriptions and closed captions on video content for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors, and space for wheelchair users to have as much mobility as possible.
The accessibility of the gallery is not unique, but it also is not the standard. It was made possible because accessibility was a part of the conversation from the start. Access Smithsonian was able to make a substantial impact on the exhibit’s layout, design, and technology because the designers and curators asked questions about accessibility all throughout.
“There’s no way that we can be everywhere, and we rely on developing relationships, trust, and a great understanding with teams,” said Ashley Grady, senior program specialist at Access Smithsonian. “They hopefully have the knowledge to make a lot of decisions independently, but they know that we’re always here for that guidance and access to user/expert testing or the disability community.”
The gallery was designed byMuseum Environments, an organization that designs and creates multicultural and sustainable exhibits. Mariano Desmarás, the creative director for Museum Environments, was eager to help make the gallery accessible. He noted that as a consultant and designer, he can make suggestions but to do what the gallery ended up accomplishing, the backing of the institution and its leaders is essential. Desmarás points to his own background of having undiagnosed ADHD as a child and his experience with dyslexia, as well as his father’s later-in-life vision impairment, as reasons why accessibility is so important to him.
“Everybody had some sort of connection that they could make to why it would be important to have an inclusively designed exhibition space. And so that made a difference,” Ziebarth said.
That lived experience of seeing the struggles of people with disabilities is often a motivator for making spaces accessible; it is why user/expert testing was vital to the creation of the gallery and its accessible features.
The Institute for Human Centered Design(IHCD) is a non-profit organization doing work with inclusive design. Their user/experts are people who, through their own lived experiences, have expertise. IHCD and Access Smithsonian brought user/experts into the gallery as it was being built.
Another tactile element which has been worn down by visitors touching it. Photo by Eli Boldt.
A typical user/expert testing session, as described by Grady, would begin with her meeting the exhibit team to understand what questions needed to be answered in that specific session. This ensured the right people were there to help. If they needed to test assistive listening devices, people who were Deaf or hard of hearing were prioritized.
“While those things can be intersectional, it’s important to make sure we’ve got the right people that would benefit the most from whatever the equipment is or element is,” Grady said.
The sessions were conversational. They engaged more with contextual inquiry to see how people engaged with the content. The sessions often included Access Smithsonian as well as people working on the exhibit’s content and design. This allowed for questions to be asked and answered as real people experienced the content.
The sessions lasted anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours, Grady explained, but they could look different depending on what was being tested and how many people were brought in. Sometimes only one or two components were being tested, whereas other times the sessions would be a comprehensive walkthrough of the gallery. Of course, user/expert testing was halted during the pandemic, but the team pivoted the testing to Zoom and continued their work.
A tactile display representing Domino Park in Little Havana, Miami. Photo by Eli Boldt.
Through user testing, things changed. Many were small changes, of course, but even small changes helped make every component as accessible as it could be. Color contrasts were changed, the heights of QR codes adjusted and font size perfected. When they got into the space, the design team mapped out the floorplan with blue tape according to ADA standards only to realize that the turn radius was not enough for motorized wheelchairs.
Michelle Cook, an inclusive design specialist with Access Smithsonian, stressed that the minimum standards are just that: the minimum.
“That’s one of the things that has been historically a challenge for those of us in the design field — and advocates for accessible or inclusive design — has been convincing people that it’s better to do more than the minimum because it serves a more diverse audience,” Cook said.
And diversity is what the Molina Family Latino Gallery is trying to communicate. To show that populations you might not think about are vital to the history of the United States. Latino history is American history: our cultures are intertwined. And within that diversity is the intersection of accessibility. They are two ideas that exist within each other.
“There’s this fear that inclusion focuses on a particular population and that it’s reductive,” Desmarás said. “I actually think that if it’s done right, inclusion is additive. That you’re saying that we’re all here.”
Source list:
https://latino.si.edu/ The website for the National Museum of the American Latino, a project currently in production. At the end of 2020, Former President Trump signed a bill for its creation. What was formerly the Smithsonian Latino Center became the National Museum of the American Latino.
https://access.si.edu/ The website for Access Smithsonian. This organization was created in 1991 and works with museums to create meaningful access for everyone.
https://museumenvironments.com/ Museum Environments is an organization that creates exhibits on large and small scales. They specialize in multicultural and bilingual exhibitions. For ¡Presente! they won the 2023 Smithsonian Award for Excellence in Exhibitions.
https://www.humancentereddesign.org/ The Institute for Human Centered Design is an education and design non-profit organization focused on universal, inclusive and accessible design. They were a part of creating the Molina Family Gallery, including but not limited to user/expert sessions.
https://www.humancentereddesign.org/user-expert-lab User/experts have personal experience with disabilities or limitations and can provide expertise and advice for design. They were heavily involved in the creation of the Molina Family Latino Gallery.
https://www.ada.gov/law-and-regs/design-standards/ The website for the Americans with Disabilities Act and the design standards. As noted by Smithsonian employees through the experience of creating an accessible exhibition, ADA standards do not cover newer devices and are often insufficient. Described as the bare minimum.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpg00Eli Boldthttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgEli Boldt2023-09-15 14:00:002023-08-25 13:48:40All Here: Accessibility and Diversity:Balancing Design, Content and Access in the Molina Family Latino Gallery
Many thanks to Clarissa Trent, 2023 Smithsonian Leadership for Change intern, for this guest post. Trent was one of several interns working with Smithsonian Affiliations to identify untold stories and develop ways to tell those stories. This 3-part series is based on personal experiences, research conducted while at the Smithsonian Institution, and conversations with staff at The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience. For more resources on Asian Pacific American bias and stereotypes, and further resources from the Smithsonian, visit the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
It’s impossible to capture the long and complicated history of adoption in just a few blog posts. The previous posts (Cold War Babies to a Multi-Million Dollar Industry and From Operation Baby Lift to International Adoption Today) cover just a small fraction of international adoption history, but hopefully they set the stage for sharing the interviews I conducted during my internship. Each woman I spoke with has had a different experience with transracial adoption that shaped their identities. I’m grateful to my sorority sisters Dana, Mattison, and Laura, for sharing their experiences and being open about their adoption stories.
Dana, on proving her “Asian-ness”
Growing up Chinese, with a white mother and Chinese siblings, Dana’s family is not what most people picture as a typical American family. But for Dana, this is the only family she can remember. Born in the bustling city of Guangdong, China, Dana was one of the thousands of children sent abroad when their birth mother gave up parental rights. Dana spent less than a year of her life in the country of her birth.
Dana entered a family that had adopted a girl from a different part of China two years earlier. Three years after her own adoption, Dana’s mother expanded their family and welcomed a boy from another part of China. Most adoptive families have both a mother and father, but not so for Dana’s story. Her mother adopted three children in five years as a single woman in her forties.
Dana’s mother enrolled her children in Chinese schools to incorporate as much Cantonese and Mandarin language and culture as possible in their lives. Dana was able to attend the school in her hometown that had an Asian population of 30%-40%. Dana remembers enjoying the experience, though her time at the school was short-lived. Unfortunately, when Dana was very young, her mother passed away and Dana and her siblings moved in with their maternal aunt. Dana attended Clemson University, a predominately white institution in South Carolina where she continued to look for ways to embrace her culture. As a freshman, Dana joined Delta Phi Lambda, where her sorority sisters cultivated an environment that was inviting and safe to explore her Chinese background.
But there were challenges outside the safe space of the sorority. Not having grown up immersed in Chinese culture and tradition, as an adult Dana felt like an outsider compared to her peers raised by Asian parents. She felt the stark difference between Asian-raised and white-raised Asian children, and looking back, remembers not understanding or realizing she should be offended when children made fun of her for looking “Asian” or mocking a Chinese dialect.
One of the complexities of transracial adoption is this dual question of identity—on the one hand, being raised culturally white but experiencing racism and othering, and on the other hand, not having experienced the cultural language or traditions that would create a sense of belonging in the Asian community. As Dana expressed in her interview, “How are you going to invalidate my identity because we didn’t grow up the same?” Though the Asian diaspora is vast, with varied experiences, many adoptees feel they have to prove they are Asian.
Mattison, on “otherness”
In the capital of Hubei province, in Wuhan, China, a little girl named Mattison was born and put up for adoption, spending the first year of her life in an orphanage. Mattison’s mom traveled more than 15 hours to pick up her daughter from a hotel lobby. When telling her story, Mattison laughed when I asked about the location—most people imagine parents first meeting their child in a hospital or even an airport, but not in a hotel lobby.
Mattison grew up an only child in a predominately white community. She attended a private Catholic school with few other Asian students enrolled. Her mom tried to encourage her to connect with her Chinese heritage by taking language classes and wearing traditional Chinese apparel. Unfortunately, children bullied her, and eventually those lessons stopped. Those memories of being bullied still resonate with her today as she recalls how children made fun of her because of her clothes. These experiences impacted her personality, and she became shy and kept to herself. She knew she looked different compared to other people and it made her nervous. These feelings of wanting to belong continued into college.
Studying at Clemson University, Mattison first joined a Panhellenic, an historically white-only sorority, but quickly felt like an outsider and quit after one semester. She later learned about Delta Phi Lambda, which advocates for Asian awareness. The sorority welcomed her and she found a community in which she felt like never had to prove herself. And Mattison’s Chinese American boyfriend and his family were instrumental in helping her learn more about her culture, taking the time to teach her Cantonese along with Chinese traditions and recipes. But she still struggled with her identity—not looking like everyone else at Clemson was still hard. It affected friendships, romantic relationships, and how she viewed herself. Unlike many of her classmates and friends who grew up surrounded by those of their own race, Mattison could never take belonging for granted.
Mattison’s mother was also adopted, which helped them to share a special relationship. This commonality of being adopted is a connection that many adopted children do not share with their parents. However, unlike Mattison, her white mom was adopted into a white family. Still, her mom was always open with her about race and adoption and is the person Mattison often turned to for difficult conversations. While Mattison’s mom was very open to these conversations, her father was not. Mattison often felt she had to educate her father about race and racism, which is not uncommon within the adoptive community. For Mattison, the weight of this burden was often exhausting and disheartening. The burden of tackling racism and bias—already fraught topics—has added another complicated layer to the complexity of transracial adoption.
Laura, on being immersed in culture but still struggling to belong
A Chinese orphanage was Laura’s home until, at one year old, she made the 15-hour trip to Tennessee to begin her new life. Not long after her adoption, Laura’s parents adopted another child, a boy from Russia. Laura spoke of how her parents encouraged them each to explore their backgrounds and their cultures and never shied away from the topics of race and who they were.
Her parents made immersing Laura in the Asian community a priority. They would drive two hours to Nashville to celebrate Chinese New Year, and worked to keep Laura connected to two other girls that were adopted with her—friendships that are still important to her today. Laura has also had the privilege that many adoptees dream of, but rarely achieve—she was able to go back to her birth country to be immersed in Chinese culture.
Identity and belonging were still issues for Laura; not feeling Asian enough or feeling she did not have the right to speak on certain topics, she did not come to easy conclusions about herself. Laura faced racism that made her truly reflect on her identity. Despite having had so many opportunities to be immersed in Asian culture and community, she still keenly felt the internal battle of growing up looking Asian in a white culture.
Laura longed for acceptance in a community that is not always accepting. Always migrating towards people who look like her, Laura learned the hard way how, for some, adopted Asians are not perceived as “real” Asians. Twenty years later, through many struggles with identity and race, Laura finally feels proud to be an adoptee. With support from others and a growing inner strength, she is more confident in her identity and story.
Adoption stories are extremely personal, and difficult to share. Dana, Mattison, Laura, and I all have different adoption stories that shape our lives. Their stories are just three in a world of complicated stories and do not speak for all adoption experiences; they’re meant to foster conversations about identity, race, belonging, and inclusion. My hope is that these stories are a catalyst for bringing attention to transracial adoption. For many, myself included, our stories and experiences are not an open topic. For those curious about Asian transracial adoption, I have included some resources below to start—or continue–your journey. The experience of adoption is not singular, it takes time and research to understand how people feel about adoption and why it takes place. The complexities of transracial and international adoption are becoming an increasingly louder national conversation, one which will hopefully lead to increased understanding, awareness, and inclusion.
https://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpg00TrentCHhttps://affiliations.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/si_Affiliations_rgb_single-line_color-280w-1.jpgTrentCH2023-09-01 10:00:002023-08-25 14:13:43Asian American Adoption- Part 3: The Interviews