Episode
Called to Help: The Many Paths to Building and Supporting Families with Katy Encalade
- Podcast
- Fostering Change
- Published
- Apr 14, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 805
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://youtu.be/2-4VFKx9wEA
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Summary
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by Katy Encalade, President and CEO of Egg Donor & Surrogate Solutions, who has spent more than two decades helping to create and support families. Katy brings a unique and deeply personal perspective to this conversation. She has been a foster parent, an egg donor, and a surrogate — offering a rare view across multiple paths of supporting children and building families. Her experience as a foster mom serves as a meaningful bridge, grounding this conversation in the realities of child welfare while expanding the lens to include other ways people can step in to help. While Fostering Change often focuses on foster care, adoption, and permanency, this episode broadens that perspective. Katy encourages listeners to consider that there are many ways to support children and families — whether by opening your home, helping someone become a parent by choosing to be a surrogate or egg donor, or finding other ways to show up with compassion and responsibility. Episode Highlights How foster care, surrogacy, and egg donation connect through a shared purpose of supporting children and families The importance of lived experience, including Katy’s time as a foster parent Why stability, care, and belonging remain central across all family-building paths The role of ethics, transparency, and trust in family-building work Encouraging people to explore different ways they can help support children and families About the Guest Katy Encalade is the President and CEO of Egg Donor & Surrogate Solutions, an organization that has helped create more than 2,000 families worldwide. A former foster parent, egg donor, and surrogate, she brings both personal experience and professional expertise to her work. Katy has spent more than t…