Too long; don’t wanna read? Skip down directly to see my recent teaching/trainings and speaking engagements.
I am a Washington state certified Peer Specialist and Community Health Worker, a nationally certified civilian Victim Advocate, and CCAR Recovery Coach, with more than a decade of experience serving vulnerable communities in King County, WA. I’ve worked in both a front-line capacity and in leadership, serving unhoused people living with severe and persistent mental illness and substance use; veterans and their families newly out of homelessness; and survivors of gender-based violence and their supporters, as well as people causing harm.
Giving trainings lights me up: before 2015, I taught English literature and composition, as well as cultural studies in Chiago (at the School of the Art Institute of Chiago) and in the Seattle-area (at Cornish College of the Arts and Bellevue College). Though I rarely teach creative writing anymore, I have also led workshops on fiction writing and publishing across the US.
Though I support a number of causes in different ways, I speak frequently on Romani civil rights and recognition and about recovery in the broadest sense of the word).
Teaching and training
I design and provide trainings in behavioral health and equity with particular interests in creating a trauma-informed workplace culture; managing crisis; serving marginalized and closed communities; and real/radical self-care for front line advocates and peers.
Trainings available online:
- Catching Crisis: How Affect Infusions Affect Us (IRETA)
- Shifting Ground: Coming to Terms with Ambiguous Loss (Brain NW)
Speaking and activism
I’m an experienced speaker, available through WE SPEAK or by individual request. I speak on Autism, especially blossoming post-diagnosis; recovery; and the struggle for Romani civil rights and recognition.
Talks available online: Romani rights
Talks available online: Social services
- Coming soon