Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard

Policy Program Coordinator

As the Policy Program Coordinator, Kelsey works on public policy matters affecting the health of mothers and their infants, pregnant people, and families. Kelsey has spent several years working in the domestic adoption field in agencies, law firms, and in advocacy work. Kelsey is a birth mother in an open adoption, and a staunch advocate for safe, child-centered adoptions. Kelsey is also the fourth generation in her family to relinquish a child for adoption and is determined to meet the challenge of flipping the script for future generations. Her experience within the adoption community has given her a unique understanding of many of the challenges facing expectant mothers and families.

Kelsey is the Director of Advocacy and Policy at AdoptMatch, under the nonprofit Ethical Family Building, where she works on important public policy issues impacting all impacted by domestic infant adoption.

Kelsey is the co-host of Twisted Sisterhood Podcast, the first-ever birth mom podcast. She is the co-host and co-author of Three+ Sides to Every Adoption, a video series on YouTube as well as a book set to publish in 2023. She is also the Co-Producer of a documentary currently in production, Love, Your Birth Mom. Kelsey frequently lends her expertise at conferences, in media interviews, and in her writing on issues regarding unlicensed adoption professionals and best practices for the field.

Kelsey has a Bachelor of Arts in Music from South Dakota State University. She has a Certificate of Paralegal Studies from UC Berkeley Extension, and is currently in graduate school at the University of North Carolina Pembroke pursuing a Master of Public Administration. She has a passion for finding practical, upstream policies that preserve choices for women and families, while also protecting them and keeping children safe. Kelsey resides in North Carolina with her husband and daughter. As a mother and birth mother of two children, health and well-being for mothers and children is near and dear to her life and work.