Roads to Family believes that all children are equal, regardless of how they were conceived or how they became part of their family.
So, we’ve set out to change the way we talk about how humans make more humans and create family.
To pull this off, we often bring a number of sometimes hard-to-talk about topics into the conversation, such as anatomy, relationships, and sex. We tackle all topics within sexual health education with medically accurate, age-appropriate, culturally responsive lessons that are not fear or shame-based. From puberty, to human reproduction, to how we create, find, and shape family — Roads to Family empowers students to become confident communicators, healthy decision makers and keen problem solvers.
Rachel Ginocchio, MPH
Freelance writer, educator, and consultant
Although I can’t ever go fast enough for my tastes, MPH does not stand for miles per hour.
Rachel holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health (MPH) with a focus in maternal and child health. She received her degree at the University of Washington as an MCHB Economics Fellow, and her master’s thesis is published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.
Rachel directed two women’s reproductive health clinics and served as a health communications specialist for the American Sexual Health Association. As a Genetics Community Planner, she co-developed and widely presented a five-year strategic plan for genetics in Oregon. She now teaches puberty and human reproduction in private and public schools in Portland.
Rachel spent eight years building her family through assisted reproduction and adoption. She emerged from parenthood writing, teaching, and presenting a modernized version of human reproduction. She is thrilled to be debuting her first book, Roads to Family: All the ways we come to be.
Selected work
Podcasts
Making Sex Ed About More than Sex (Jewish Fertility Foundation, 1/2024)
Educating Children about the Different Ways Families are Made (Three Makes Baby Podcast, 6/2021)
Healthy Sexuality Education as Violence and Abuse Prevention (Oregon SATF Podcast, 4/2021)
The Modern Answer to "Where Do Babies Come from?" (Femtastic Podcast, 1/2018)
Presentations
Overhauling the Explanation of Human Reproduction (National Sex Ed Conference, 11/23)
What we gain when we expand the explanation of human reproduction (Oregon Youth Sexual Health partnership, 5/2022)
Donors, Surrogates and Technology: Overhauling How We Talk about Reproduction & Identity with Youth (Healthy Teen Network Conference, 11/2020)
Overhauling How We Talk about Reproduction (Basic Rights Oregon Conference, 10/2020)
Publications
Roads to Family: All the ways we come to be Book. Lerner Publishing, April 2023
New York Times Opinion Letter Opinion Letter. In response to The Children of Pornhub by Nicholas Kristof (Rachel Ginochio, 12/04/20220)
All Roads Lead to Family Essay. Rachel HS Ginocchio, Brain, Child, Fall 2013). An essay about Rachel's own journey through IVF and adoption
Consultations
Served on Oregon’s K-12 Health Education Standards Advisory Panel, The Health Education Standards will go into affect in the 2025-2026 school year.
Served on an expert panel for Power to Decide and helped draft a place-based framework called The Reproductive Well-Being Toolkit.
Provide written feedback and recommendations on how to include assisted reproduction in sexual health curriculums, including: Advocates for Youth, Get Real, and My Future My Choice.