From survival to

BECOMING

from becoming to

TRANSFORMATION

Scholar. Community Builder. Adoptee Advocate. Wayfinder. Wisdom Keeper. Healer.

A lifelong inquiry into identity, belonging, community, culture, healing, and what becomes possible when we reclaim the parts of ourselves that were separated, silenced, or forgotten.

For more than three decades, I have worked at the intersection of intercountry adoption, racial and adoptive identity, child welfare, early trauma, community, research, and policy.

I came to this work first as an adoptee.

I was born in South Korea and came to the United States through intercountry adoption as a young child. My own journey of identity, belonging, loss, connection, and return eventually became a professional and community journey—one that has shaped my work as a scholar, policy expert, and healer.

My work is grounded in a simple belief:

Adoptees are not simply the subjects of adoption. We are knoweldge holders, community builders, researchers, advocates, and authors of our own lives.

Who am I?

From lived experience to collective transformation

My work brings together three interconnected practices:

COMMUNITY BUILDING

Building spaces where adoptees can find one another, share knowledge, create belonging, and transform isolation and loss into connection and empowerment.

RESEARCH

Generating knowledge that centers adoptees’ lived experiences across the life course—not only during childhood – to shape child welfare policy, practice, support, and healing.

HEALING

Creating pathways toward greater wholeness through connection, identity integration, cultural belonging, and the restoration of stories that have been fragmented or silenced.

These are not separate areas of my work.

They are parts of the same ecosystem.

Community Building

We found one another—and built something new.

In 1996, I founded Also-Known-As, Inc., an organization created by and for adult intercountry adoptees in New York City.

At the time, there were few places where adult international adoptees could gather to explore the complicated realities of growing up between countries, cultures, races, and families. It was equally as hard to find one another.

The organization created space for adoptees to connect, build community, explore identity, support one another, and develop a collective voice.

That experience taught me something that continues to guide my work:

Community is not an accessory to healing. Community can be the beginning of it.

The adult Korean adoptee movement that emerged in the 1990s helped establish a powerful new understanding of adoption: adoptees themselves could organize, produce knowledge, challenge assumptions, and influence the systems that shaped our lives. (Columbia Library Journals).

Today, I continue to believe in the transformative power of adoptee-led spaces, mutual aid, collective memory, and community knowledge.

Research

Asking different questions

My scholarship examines adoption not as a single childhood event, but as a lifelong experience.

My research has explored:

Adoptive identity
Racial and ethnic identity
Transracial and intercountry adoption
The Korean adoptee experience and history
Childhood adversity and complex trauma
Institutional care in South Korea
Mental health and well-being
Birth culture and belonging
Birth-family connections and reunification
Adoptee-led mutual aid
Adult outcomes among adoptees
Trauma-informed approaches in child welfare

My research asks not only:

“What happened to adopted children?”

but also:

“What happens to adopted people across an entire lifetime?”

That shift matters.

The Mapping the Life Course of Adoption Project is an expression of this approach: an adoptee-led, community-engaged research project examining health, well-being, and adoptee connections in adulthood. Participants are understood not merely as research subjects, but as co-creators of knowledge. (CAARC)

Identity is more than heritage.
One of the most influential strands of my work has been examining what it means to grow up transracially adopted.
In Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption, I worked with colleagues at the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute to examine adoptive and racial/ethnic identity among adopted adults.
The research challenged the idea that cultural exposure alone is enough.
Learning about Korean food, attending cultural celebrations, or visiting a country of origin can be meaningful—but transracial adoptees also have to navigate race, racism, belonging, representation, and what it means to live visibly in a racialized society.
The work pointed toward a more expansive understanding of identity development—one that includes relationships, diverse communities, racial awareness, role models, origin stories, and the lifelong integration of adoptive and racial identities. (Paperzz)
This remains central to my work today.
We need to move beyond simply teaching adoptees about culture. We need to create the conditions in which adoptees can understand and inhabit their whole identities.
My work is deeply connected to the history of Korean intercountry adoption.
South Korea became one of the largest countries of origin for intercountry adoption, creating generations of Korean adoptees raised throughout the United States and Europe.
The adult Korean adoptee movement became one of the earliest large-scale communities through which intercountry adoptees organized around identity, belonging, search and reunion, racism, adoption policy, and their own collective histories.
I was part of that movement.
My scholarship has documented the emergence of adult Korean adoptee communities and explored what those communities can teach adoption professionals about the lifelong experiences of adoptees. (Columbia Library Journals)
But history is not only something to document.
It is something to reclaim.
MAPPING THE LIFE COURSE OF ADOPTION
What happens after childhood?
The next generation of adoption research must look beyond childhood.
The Mapping the Life Course of Adoption Project brings together adoptee scholars, adoptee organizations, and community members to explore adult health, well-being, and the role of adoptee connections.
The project is intentionally:
ADOPTEE-LED.
COMMUNITY-ENGAGED.
COMMUNITY-EMBEDDED.
Its purpose is not simply to produce another academic study.
It is to create knowledge that can return to the community and become a resource for adoptees themselves. (CAARC)
Research & Scholarship
Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption
A landmark study examining adoptive identity and racial/ethnic identity among adopted adults, with particular attention to Korean transracial adoptees. (Paperzz)
Adult Korean Intercountry Adoptees: A Resource for Adoption Practice
An early reflection on the emergence of adult Korean adoptee organizations and the contribution of adoptee communities to adoption practice. (Columbia Library Journals)
All Grown Up: Rise of the Korean Adult Adoptee Movement and Implications for Practice
An examination of the emergence of adult Korean adoptee organizing and what it means for professionals and adoption systems. (CAARC)
From the Ashes of War: Lessons from 50 Years of Korean International Adoption
A historical examination of Korean intercountry adoption and its implications for understanding adoption policy and practice. (CAARC)
Mapping the Life Course of Adoption Project
An adoptee-led, community-engaged research initiative exploring health, well-being, and adoptee connections in adulthood. (CAARC)

Healing

From fragmentation toward wholeness.

Returning to South Korea became an important part of my own life and professional work.

The journey was not simply about traveling back to my birth country.

It was about encountering memories, language, landscape, history, family, culture, and the parts of myself that had existed before I had words for them.

That experience deepened my understanding of adoption as a lifelong process of separation and connection, loss and discovery, displacement and belonging.

It also shaped my research on South Korean institutional care and the experiences of children who came through systems of alternative care. (Academia.edu)

Healing, in my work, is not about pretending that loss did not happen. It is not about finding a single explanation for adoption. And it is not about telling adoptees how they should feel about their stories.

Healing begins with the freedom to tell the truth. It can mean finding people who understand. It can mean recovering a language, a culture, a name, a dish, a history, or a relationship. It can mean making peace with complexity. It can mean grieving what cannot be recovered while creating something meaningful from what remains.

It can mean moving from:

“What is wrong with me?”

to

“What happened to me—and what happened for me?”

And sometimes healing begins simply with discovering:

I am not alone.

My work increasingly brings together research, community, embodied experience, cultural connection, and practices of well-being that integrate Western scientific knowledge with Eastern ancestral wisdom to explore what it means to not simply survive our histories, but to create lives of connection, meaning, and transformation.

Media & Press

Dr. Hollee McGinnis is a frequent voice in podcasts, interviews, and public talks, where she shares her perspectives on identity, cultural healing, and adoptee advocacy. Her media presence highlights both her scholarship and her lived experience, offering insight into adoption, resilience, and reconnection.

Featured Podcasts & Interviews

On Adoptees On (2022), Hollee explored her dual identity as scholar and adoptee, reflecting on how high-achieving adoptees often mask inner struggles, her kimchi-poem ritual, and how her breast cancer diagnosis deepened her cultural reconnection. In 2025, she joined The Empowered Adoptee Podcast for a conversation about adoption narratives, community empowerment, and ancestral healing practices. In another Empowered Adoptee interview (2024), she spoke about reclaiming Korean heritage through language, food, and culture as anchors of identity.

Earlier conversations trace the arc of her journey. In The Rambler (2016), she discussed founding Also-Known-As, her upbringing in Westchester, NY, and the first Korean Adoptee Gathering. On Adapted Podcast (2023), she shared insights from the Mapping the Life Course of Adoption Project and the soul-healing work that guides her methodology.

Video Highlight

Experience Hollee’s presence and passion firsthand in this recorded talk: Watch on YouTube.

Speaking Themes

Across her media appearances, several themes emerge. She often highlights kimchi-making as a somatic ritual of healing and cultural reclamation. She explores the tension between thriving and survival in adoptee narratives, giving voice to the hidden burdens of “success.” Her research is framed as activism, lifting adoptee voices to influence policy and practice. And through embodied storytelling, she reminds audiences that healing is found not only in words, but also in food, ritual, and lived connection.