Over the past 40 years, Rita Davern has traveled the Burren, birthplace of her grandmother’s people in County Clare, Ireland. You will often find her there, in the parlor, drinking tea with friends and distant relations. The conversation may turn to those who stayed and those who left, as the devastation of colonization, hunger and emigration took its toll. Rita knows firsthand that, for U.S. people with European heritage, reconnecting to our homeland and our cultural history adds huge richness to our lives. Rita believes that the greatest find of genealogy is the living relatives.

Rita worked as a communication and leadership consultant to corporate America for twenty years. When her adopted Korean son became ill, she discovered — and now teaches — Parenting-by-Connection, an approach to parenting that builds deep, strong, healing relationships with children through play.

Finding and facing one’s own story – and then letting that experience change you – is a big theme in Rita’s life. She also enjoys time outdoors in her beloved Minnesota. She can be found snowshoeing in the north woods or hiking along the Mississippi River Valley with her husband, Bob.