Encompass Adoptees Mentors & Youth Program Team
Our Mentors and Youth Program Team are committed to the continued journey of processing their individual lived experiences and educating themselves on related issues as well as encouraging this in one another. They participate in an application screening, interview, orientation, regular group processing, and debriefs, as well as background checks. In addition, they complete several required trainings, readings, educational workshops, classes, or events every year on related topics to help them better understand themselves and the youth we work with. Most mentors are currently in college(or started with Encompass when they were in college), and most plan to pursue careers in mental health, counseling, and/or social work. Mentors agree to one year of participation to encourage stability for the youth in our program, but many stay longer.
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own. ”
Heather Gonzales LPC (she/her/hers)
Mentor / Lived Experience- Adoptee
Founder/Program Director
Heather has a bachelor’s degree in Art Therapy from Capital University and a master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Pennsylvania Western University. In addition to being an adult adoptee, Heather has accumulated experiences as a Kinship Support Specialist, as a Mental Health Specialist doing Community Counseling, and as a foster parent. She has served in a variety of children’s educational and care positions, including working with Transracial Journeys Summer Camp for several years in their art cabin. Before this, Heather had a small woodworking business for nearly ten years. As an artist, Heather’s work was displayed at the 2019 Indiana Adoptee Network Conference and at the Annual Encompass Adoptees Art Show.
Heather is a domestic kinship adoptee, adopted with her twin sister, and is in reunion. In 2015, she became active in the adoption community and began working to process her individual experiences as an adopted person. She has a strong commitment to reading and self-education on relinquishment, adoption, attachment, grief, and other related issues.
Emily Cooper (she/her/hers)
Mentor / Lived Experience- Adoptee
Mentor since 2019
Emily Cooper is a Chinese Transracial Adoptee from Westerville, Ohio. She has a Bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University in their pre-vet program, and currently attends Ohio State's Graduate degree program and hopes to become a mixed-animal veterinarian. Outside of her academics, she is an avid reader. She also enjoys spending time with family, listening to music, and traveling.
Kate Supplee (she/her/hers)
Mentor /Lived Experience- Adoptee
Mentor since 2023
Since joining Encompass Adoptees in 2023, Kate has used her lived experience as an adoptee to serve the adoptive, foster, and kinship community. You may also see her in the building throughout the week, assisting in the office. Before this, Kate gained experience working with adoptee youth through Dungarvin Ohio LLC. as a direct support professional/youth mentor since 2021. Kate is currently finishing her Bachelor’s degree in psychology at the Ohio State University and plans to earn her masters in clinical counseling to continue supporting adoptees as a therapist.
Kate is a domestic adult adoptee in partial reunion with some of her birth family and is still in search of her birth father. She strives to be her best self, a contributing member of the adoptee community, and has a passion for helping others. Over the years, Kate has completed training, read books, and taken courses that have expanded her knowledge on adoption, trauma, and mental health. She actively seeks to be better informed on new research and takes the steps needed to apply it to her work. In her free time, Kate enjoys hiking, doing art, and indulging in a good book or movie.
Sunitha (Suni) Mahrajan (she/her/hers)
Mentor / Lived Experience- Daughter of an Adoptee
Mentor since 2024
Since joining Encompass in 2024, Sunitha Mahrajan has been exploring her lived experience as the daughter of a Nepali Transracial adoptee to help others in the adoptive, fostered, and kinship community and constellation. She has other adoptees in her family and connections to the former nonprofit Coalition of Fostered and Adoptive Families.
Sunitha graduated from Metro Early College High School and participated in the College Credit Plus program to attend classes at Columbus State Community College. Sunitha completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at The Ohio State University, minoring in Child Abuse and Neglect, and is currently working on a Master’s of Social Work at The Ohio State University. Sunitha hopes to counsel the AFK+ D community, specifically children and adolescents, after getting her state license, but in the meantime, she is gaining experience working with youth at Encompass, which has been very fulfilling for her. Outside of work and academia, Sunitha enjoys being outdoors, listening to music, and spending time with her friends, family, and dog, Misty.
Savana Hardesty (she/her/hers)
Mentor/ Lived Experience- Adoptee
Mentor since 2025
Savana graduated from The Charles School in 2013 and has worked various jobs since then, her favorites being Strader's Garden Center and Joann Fabrics. She currently works at the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Savana is enrolled at Columbus State Community College and is working towards a degree in sociology. She plans to pursue a master’s program to become a licensed clinical therapist and hopes to continue working with adoptee children, teens, and adults at Encompass.
Savana Hardesty is an adult adoptee, adopted at the age of seven along with her younger bio sister. Savana and her sister were born in California and spent several years living between their bio mother, extended family, and in foster care before moving to Columbus to live with their adoptive mother. In her free time, Savana enjoys reading, doing a wide variety of arts and crafts, hiking, gardening, and spending time with her friends and family.
Ivy Penderson
Mentor/ Lived Experience- Adoptee
Mentor since 2025
Bio coming soon…!
