When Ali Dunbar started at the Clinton School of Public Service, she brought with her nearly a decade of experience in post-adoption programming. That professional expertise, combined with her personal perspective as an international adoptee, recently took her to the international stage to present her research on advancing adult adoptees’ participation in policy making.
In October 2025, Dunbar, a second-year Master of Public Service student from Omaha, Nebraska, presented her research at the Democratizing Human Rights Conference in Ontario, Canada.
Her paper, titled “Centering adoptees’ voices: Protecting the human rights of adoptees through participatory-democratic practices,” was co-authored with Dr. Robert Richards, Associate Professor of Communication and Director of the Open Governance Lab at the Clinton School. The research explores a critical gap in international adoption policy: the historical exclusion of adult adoptee voices from the very laws that govern their lives.
A Time for Adoptees’ Voices to be Heard
The first large-scale international adoption to the United States began in 1955 from Korea, with more than 250,000 Korean children placed in the U.S. over the last 70 years. According to Dunbar’s and Richards’ research, the rights of international adoptees are often inadequately defined in formal law, inconsistently applied across jurisdictions, and frequently marred by informality and illegality.
These systemic issues can result in violations of an adoptee’s right to know their own story, identity, and family of origin, Dunbar said. Current movements to reform adoption practices and improve the protection of these rights have been initiated by adoptees themselves, who seek a seat at the table in policy debates.
Recent shifts in the field, including the closure of the People’s Republic of China’s international adoption program in September 2024, have led to a significant period of transition. Dunbar argues that this moment offers a unique opportunity to prioritize adoptee voices through participatory-democratic practices, and the paper offers a framework to accomplish this.
Informed by Tina Nabatchi and Matt Leighninger’s 2015 civic engagement design method in their book “Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy,” Dunbar proposed a multi-stage initiative to bridge the gap between policy and lived experience.
This process begins with adoptee-led, policy-specific discussions to elevate experiences from various placement programs, such as Traditional, Waiting Child, and Hosting programs. This is followed by a phase of synthesis and deliberation to develop a shared understanding across different groups. Finally, the model concludes with stakeholder engagement, where researchers work directly with policymakers to develop actionable, adoptee-centered policy recommendations.
“The paper is about a deliberative participation process,” Dunbar explained. “We want to foster a critical consciousness among policymakers. Historically, social workers, legislators, government bodies, and adoptive parents are central to policy discussions, but the individuals most impacted are rarely at the table. We are just seen on the periphery, if we are even acknowledged at all.”
Shifting the Policy Paradigm
Presenting in Canada at the Democratizing Human Rights Conference was a meaningful experience for Dunbar, both professionally and personally. She presented during a panel titled “Children’s Rights/Human Rights and Democratic Praxis.” During the trip, she was also able to meet in-person for the first time with several Ontario-based volunteers she had previously worked with on virtual post-adoptee programming for years.
“It was intimidating because I’ve never presented about adoption to audiences outside of the adoption community,” Dunbar said. “The paper was well received, but it also reflected that not many people know about international adoption policy, especially the lack of policy that exists once a child is actually adopted. There is a connection to Arkansas through the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, initiated by President Clinton, which granted automatic citizenship to adoptees under the age of 18 when the law took effect.”
Richards noted that this research is particularly timely as adoptees globally are beginning to organize and demand a seat at the table for policy and law discussions. He emphasized that the collaboration aims to provide a scholarly blueprint for this shift.
“Adoptees have historically been marginalized in the policy processes that govern their lives,” Richards said. “Ali has drawn on her professional expertise and lived experience to develop a process that ensures as the transnational adoption system overhauls its procedures, those changes are informed by the voices of the adoptees themselves. We are encouraged by how well this model has been received and look forward to its contribution to the global discourse on human rights.”
As Dunbar nears her upcoming May graduation, she hopes her research will open broader public discussions on the importance of centering international adoptee voices in decision-making, while offering a framework for adoption policy built upon a foundation of accountability and the voices of adoptees themselves.