Lisa Romero Dugal

About Lisa

Lisa Dugal is a health educator, a late-in-life college graduate, a mother, a widow, a grandmother, and a writer. Her life has been shaped by several defining journeys: her experience with adoption, her long road through addiction and lasting recovery, a late-in-life transformation sparked by embracing health, fitness, and education, and the recent loss of her husband, Steven. Her work explores resilience and the ever-evolving identities (and unwanted labels) that can come to so deeply define us during different seasons of life.

Chosen

A Memoir of Adoption, Addiction, and One Woman’s Unapologetic Becoming

#1 Amazon Best Seller · October 27, 2026 Download the cover

This book began as a private way to process heartbreak following her husband’s passing, but it quickly grew into something much bigger, giving readers companionship, faith, hope during grief, and permission to courageously take part in their own healing and becoming—at their own pace and on their own terms.

Lisa is a native of Louisiana, where she embraces movement, meaningful challenges, and the belief that it’s never too late and you’re never too old. This book is written in honor of her husband, Steven, whose love continues to shape every step of her journey.

Conversation Angles

• Chosen, Not Defined: Reclaiming identity beyond the labels the world gives us.
• The Lifelong Impact of Adoption: Belonging, reunion, rejection, and the truth that finding birth parents doesn’t always create closure.
• Recovery Is Not a Straight Line: What Lisa learned after relapsing following seventeen years of sobriety.
• Grieving a Life Partner: Moving forward after loss without leaving their love behind.
• It Is Never Too Late: Returning to college, embracing wellness, and stepping into a new chapter later in life.

Suggested Interview Questions

• QWhat does the word chosen mean to you now — and how has that meaning changed throughout your life?
• QHow did being adopted shape your earliest beliefs about identity, worth, and belonging?
• QWhat did your relapse teach you about loneliness, shame, and the need to feel seen?
• QHow do you speak about addiction without allowing it to become your entire identity?
• QWhat has grief revealed to you about love, faith, and who you are without your husband physically beside you?
• QWhat would you say to someone who believes it is too late to heal, recover, or pursue a new dream?