One of my earliest memories of safety comes from my time in Thassos, Greece where I lived with my family. My mother was the local English teacher and I remember how safe I felt in her classroom. Since those early years, I’ve learned that safety is not a given. We experience as much safety as we can co-create, not just in our classrooms but in our local communities and most broadly in our global society. And we walk in a history plagued by oppression, supremacy, and greed.

I believe it is the work of our time to question and transform the systems we’ve inherited. To be born a human is a unique privilege because it gives us the capacity to accomplish small-scale and large-scale systemic change. I intend my work to be a contribution toward the path of healing and transformation, for myself, for my clients, and in alignment with the shared interconnectedness of all living beings.

I have had the honor to learn from a lot of people over the years. I earned a B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies from Indiana University. I learned community organizing skills with the AFL-CIO and later the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. I began facilitating spaces in 2009, following in the footsteps of Paulo Freire’s popular education model. The path of training and facilitation took me to Indivisible where I led the training team and learned from the Emergent Strategies Ideation Institute, the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, and the Anti-oppression Resource and Training Alliance. In the unending practice of anti-oppression, I consider bell hooks and Ibram X. Kendi (despite not having met either of them in real life) to be two of my greatest teachers.

In 2015 I began studying and practicing Nonviolent Communication, and in 2021 I certified as a Mediator with my teacher and mentor Dr. Kenneth Cloke through the Center for Dispute Resolution. Over this time, I’ve accumulated 500+ hours of training to strengthen my facilitation and mediation skills including studying Restorative Justice both with the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) and at Georgetown University, and studying couples therapy practices with the Gottman Institute and with Dr. Esther Perel.

I am currently studying with Dr. Gabor Maté through the Compassionate Inquiry Program, learning how to help others process and heal from trauma. I also continue to study Internal Family Systems and Polyvagal Theory to strengthen my capacity to build and maintain my personal safety and the interpersonal safety I develop with others.