As a child, I was always concerned with fairness and kindness. At the time this mostly meant I didn't want people to be bullied, didn't want people to be mean to each other. I had no lens yet for the structural violence of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, ableism. As a white kid in a middle income neighborhood, the impact of many systems of oppression remained invisible to me even as they were woven into the world around me.
When I graduated high school and left home, my worldview was challenged time and again through the relationships I built with people who knew the violence of these systems firsthand. I learned of police killings, mass incarceration and sexual assault; spent time living in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and witnessing the radical inequality created by borders and US trade policies. When the curtains were pulled back, I was devastated by what I saw. It was confusing, heartbreaking, very difficult to take in. Perhaps most challenging of all was coming to recognize and acknowledge the ways I was participating in and receiving benefits from many of these systems.
My life since has been about learning from this heartbreak, steadily building capacity to feel it without being devoured by it; and taking action to fight for the Beloved Community Martin Luther King Jr spoke about. The one which he said will "require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a qualitative change in our lives" to realize. Taking action has looked different ways at different times. I've been a climate justice organizer, a racial justice activist, a member of transformative justice "accountability pods" responding to sexual violence, a leader in a grassroots program for white men confronting their conditioning around power.
Since 2016, I've also been an organizational trainer and consultant, focusing primarily on anti-racism programming for white staff, environmental justice training for conservation organizations, gender justice programming around sexism and transphobia, and generative dialogue facilitation for diverse groups who want to face the reality of injustice in their culture and work together for change. I rarely facilitate alone. It's my practice to work with collaborators who bring lived experiences of marginalization and allyship which are different than my own, the majority of whom are people of color.
Past clients include organizations such as:
If your organization is seeking support around justice and equity, diversity and inclusion, I'd love to hear from you and explore how I and my collaborators might be of support.
When I graduated high school and left home, my worldview was challenged time and again through the relationships I built with people who knew the violence of these systems firsthand. I learned of police killings, mass incarceration and sexual assault; spent time living in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and witnessing the radical inequality created by borders and US trade policies. When the curtains were pulled back, I was devastated by what I saw. It was confusing, heartbreaking, very difficult to take in. Perhaps most challenging of all was coming to recognize and acknowledge the ways I was participating in and receiving benefits from many of these systems.
My life since has been about learning from this heartbreak, steadily building capacity to feel it without being devoured by it; and taking action to fight for the Beloved Community Martin Luther King Jr spoke about. The one which he said will "require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a qualitative change in our lives" to realize. Taking action has looked different ways at different times. I've been a climate justice organizer, a racial justice activist, a member of transformative justice "accountability pods" responding to sexual violence, a leader in a grassroots program for white men confronting their conditioning around power.
Since 2016, I've also been an organizational trainer and consultant, focusing primarily on anti-racism programming for white staff, environmental justice training for conservation organizations, gender justice programming around sexism and transphobia, and generative dialogue facilitation for diverse groups who want to face the reality of injustice in their culture and work together for change. I rarely facilitate alone. It's my practice to work with collaborators who bring lived experiences of marginalization and allyship which are different than my own, the majority of whom are people of color.
Past clients include organizations such as:
- Sierra Club
- National Wildlife Federation
- Earthworks
- Sero Project
- Positive Women's Network
If your organization is seeking support around justice and equity, diversity and inclusion, I'd love to hear from you and explore how I and my collaborators might be of support.