I wrote my first book when I was six years old on a few pink sticky notes, which I confidently stapled together before scribbling $1 on the back. It’s the first memory I have of wanting to be a storyteller.
As I grew up to understand more of the world around me and my own identity as a queer, Jewish woman, I came to see storytelling not only as something I enjoyed, but one of the most powerful tools we have for connection and healing .“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion,” said bell hooks.
Flash forward to today, and I’ve filled my life with storytelling. For ten years with Mixte Communications, I’ve partnered with and amplified the voices of visionary, grassroots leaders advocating for everything from clean air and water and affordable housing and transportation to health equity, reproductive justice and the rights of LGBTQ+ youth. Now as Vice President of Communications, I find opportunities to share our communications expertise with other folks doing similar work and build a team of fearless communications leaders for social justice.
The fundamental concept of equity for all people – not just people who look like me, or have lived lives I can relate to – remains at the heart of my work. To that end, I continually practice de-centering my own experiences as a cisgender white person and hold space for marginalized voices so that we can collectively work to build a world where everyone has access to what they need to live happy, healthy lives, and what makes us different is celebrated, not criminalized.
As any advocate will tell you, building this long-term power requires we tend to and nurture ourselves as human beings along the way. You can usually find me working remotely from my van while riding surfboards and taking photos along the California Coast, putting the finishing touches on my first book (okay second book, if you count the pink sticky notes!) which will be published in 2024, or with my partner, teaching our three cats with big personalities to walk on a leash.
