Yolanda's Biography

Yolanda Comparan created Adoption Referral & Information Service (ARIS) to respond to pre-adoptive families, adoptive families and adoption professionals having a difficult time finding each other. She designed the services of ARIS based on the needs of the Pacific Northwest:

Yolanda and her husband adopted their pre-teen daughter and son at the age of 39 months while they lived in San Diego. She lived in California until 1999 when she moved to Washington State following her husband’s retirement from the Coast Guard.

Yolanda is an educator at heart and gets a thrill from helping families find the professionals and resources they need. She has provided invaluable information, referrals, counseling and education for thousands of families. Yolanda has spent much of her professional life doing crisis work. She has worked with children and teens living at risk on the streets, in gangs, in foster care, and involved in the juvenile justice and mental health systems.

She was a guardian for teen girls struggling to become emancipated from one or more of these systems. Yolanda also spent several years responding to crisis and providing training as a civilian working for the U.S. Coast Guard. Yolanda earned a Masters of Social Welfare from UCLA and a Master’s of Organization Management from Antioch University in Santa Barbara.

Recently, Yolanda has earned a Foster Care and Adoption Therapy Certificate. She has expertise in domestic adoption and international adoption. Over the years Yolanda has been involved in a variety of charity work, most involving children and families. She continues to support local not-for-profit organizations, again focusing mainly on children and parenting.