-
I was born and raised in a small, rural town in Northern California. My father was an innovative farmer and community leader whose sudden and unexpected death at a young age left me with the enduring gift of gratitude for the present moment. My mother was a full-time wrangler of me and my five siblings. She managed our family with exceptional problem solving and time management skills, paired with style and grace. She later brought those same skills and more to the management of the family farm in my dad’s absence. My parents instilled in me the value of faith, community, generosity, and learning. I continue to live into those values, if not always in the form that my parents imagined.
I’ve been a lover of books, reading, and learning from an early age. My sense of curiosity led me to study Sociology and Ethnic Studies at UCLA (B.A.), International Agricultural Development at U.C. Davis (M.S.), and over the years to complete certificates of study and expertise in a range of subjects from grief and loss to conflict resolution, equine guided education to facilitation and leadership development. Most recently, I’m completing the Achieving Excellence program through the Harvard Kennedy School of Public Policy and NeighborWorks America.
Although I appreciate and value my formal education, it is the depth and breadth of my life experiences that have provided me with the opportunity to learn and grow in ways that have honed my skills as a leader, mentor, manager and facilitator. I have more than 30 years experience in the non-profit and public sectors including work in the fields of: affordable housing, rural development, hospice, grief counseling, addiction recovery, sustainable transportation, domestic violence and food access. I’ve worked and lived in both rural and urban areas throughout California as well as internationally in the Philippines, India, Ecuador, El Salvador and Bolivia. The experience of living as an outsider in lands far from home grounded me in the practice of inclusivity and respect for difference.
Finally, I am a wife, mother, sister and friend. Attending to each of these roles from a place of humility, courage and love has taught me lessons that I could not have learned in any other realm.
-
Belonging - creating spaces and relationships that celebrate our shared humanity, where everyone feels safe to be who they really are
Curiosity - persistently acknowledging uncertainty; questioning assumptions; maintaining a mindset of inquiry and staying on a path of discovery
Integrity - choosing courage over comfort; choosing what's right over what's fun, fast, or easy; and practicing my/our values, not just professing them (definition courtesy of Brene Brown)
Trust - choosing to make something important to you vulnerable to the actions of someone else (definition courtesy of Charles Feldman)Humor - opening the door to connection and creativity with shared laughter; practicing humility; and boosting the joy quotient
Justice - removing barriers to equitable participation in our world; actively working to dismantle racism, misogyny, ableism, and classism
-
Listening and Observing - paying attention to what is being said and not being said
Integrating Pause as Practice - intentionally slowing down the process in order to ensure that the right voices are included and the appropriate range of possibilities are considered; recognizing that a sense of urgency is not always equivalent to the need to move fast, it can be instead a need to prioritize attention
Utilizing Invitation and Inquiry - in order to gather and understand diverse perspectives; move beyond the people and ideas that are most often centered; check assumptions and make space for creativity and innovation
Commitment to Clarity - demonstrate what you mean in a way that others can understand; clearly identify what issue you are trying to address (do this over and over, throughout the process)
Flexibility - a willingness to shift the conversation, location, process or participants in order to better achieve the stated purpose
Relational vs. Transactional - the focus on my work is on adaptive change, which requires new ways of thinking and behaving and that’s all about people and relationships; my work is people centered and grounded in relationships