I have spent over 50 years learning that belonging is a practice, not a destination. For a long time, I saw my life as a collection of different chapters—artist, designer, teacher, organizer. But as I’ve grown, I’ve been able to view my work as a single, integrated practice. I use the eye of an artist and designer and the heart of a healer to build bridges where there were once only walls or canyons.

I live in rural Colorado with my husband, Mark, and our Border Collie, Duncan. From this mountain home, I serve as a community member and relative. I am dedicated to the safety, power, and sovereignty of rural communities, Indigenous peoples, and our youth.

The Power of the Prism

My work is rooted in a belief that we are only as strong as our willingness to stand together. My education and my journey into my own lineage uncovered a past I didn't know—a history that was "shared" with me in stories but not always fully experienced or understood at the time. Now, I can see through the "trees." I recognize the systems that were designed to keep us disconnected, and I see how that history has left so many of us feeling adrift.

I don’t come to these communities to bring "solutions" from the outside. I facilitate and contribute as a community member to create a space where we can collectively find our own way forward. We are like a prism: we break apart light into so many different, vital colors. Just like a prism, it takes all of us to produce that beautiful light. We’ve been taught to follow leaders and ignore the truth in our own hearts, but I believe our power lies in the "US."

The Work of the Hands and Mind

I have spent decades as a "creative activist," a term my peers use to describe the way I blend technical proficiency with deep advocacy. My background is broad: I have taught art in classrooms, designed user interfaces (UI/UX) for the digital world, and served as a strategist in think-tanks where I was compensated to dream up new ways for businesses and organizations to thrive.

Today, that "thinking" is channeled into the movements that matter most. My practice as a designer and consultant is guided by the International Indigenous Design Charter, ensuring that every project I touch is Indigenous-led and respects the self-determination of the communities involved. I do not simply "reference" Indigenous knowledge; I facilitate a clinical and creative process where cultural custodians are active participants and decision-makers from the outset.

This integrated approach to design and justice is the engine behind my current leadership roles:

• Partnership for Community Action (PfCA): Since 2015, I have led the grassroots effort that evolved into the PfCA. As the "Vision Keeper," I provide executive leadership for our rural organizing, moving from early community-building to a statewide platform of advocacy. My focus remains on creating the pathways that allow historically disempowered voices to share, amplify, and lead their own movements.

• Colorado 2SLGBTQIA+ Rural Coalition: I coordinate a statewide movement across 17+ counties, connecting 50+ leaders and 30+ organizations. Together, we are building the essential infrastructure of health equity and safety for our rural Queer family.

• The Pathways to Protection: My commitment to safety is deeply practical. I advocate for and design curricula for Comprehensive Sexual Education, and I consult with hospitals and healthcare providers to ensure transgender and gender-diverse patients receive care rooted in dignity and cultural understanding. From the local level to government offices across the state, I teach 2SLGBTQIA+ cultural fluency to bridge the systemic gaps that leave our people vulnerable.

• Anti-Racist Leadership: As a lifelong learner of anti-racist leadership and a person navigating a white-presenting identity, I am committed to the continuous process of unlearning white supremacy. I prioritize practicing accountable, principled leadership within multiracial and multigenerational movements, ensuring that the defense from harm is a collective and inclusive effort.

Bearing Witness

For over 30 years, I have been a member of the Colorado creative community. I practice my art in the spirit of "Bearing Witness." In the Zen Peacemaker tradition, this means to be fully present with the world exactly as it is—the joy and the suffering—without looking away or judging.

I use my art to catalogue emotions and share them. It is how I process the oppression I’ve encountered and the destruction of my own familial foundations—roots torn apart by colonizers, settlers, and the complicated history of my own ancestors as both the oppressed and the oppressor. I create to understand what I must witness.

The Root System: Our Youth

My commitment to youth is the "root system" of everything I do. Decades ago, I founded ARTBOX. It started with a pile of old cigar boxes filled with supplies, but it grew into a program that donated over 500 backpacks annually to those in need. We realized children in "moving" situations—those in hospitals, shelters for the unhoused, or those removed from homes—needed a way to hold their world together while being moved between social services, caregivers, and law enforcement.

For over 25 years, I have served as a "Trusted Adult," mentor, and advocate. My goal is to amplify the voices of our youth, sharing what I have learned so they may find the power to do the same.

The Medicine

Everything I have shared is held by The Medicine. From an Indigenous and shamanic standpoint, Medicine is not just a pill or a treatment; it is anything that restores balance and connects us. A song can be medicine. A difficult conversation can be medicine. A well-designed system can be medicine. Medicine is the power within a person, a plant, or an action to bring about wholeness.

My family history is a mirror of this land: one part stewarded the land, the animals, and the air through their Indigenous understanding and deep connection to the land, while the other came to the same land to build a life at almost any cost. My practice as a healer is not a "service" I sell; it is a way of being. I have dedicated myself to a lifelong re-learning of the practices my ancestors held: healing the individual, the community, the spirit, and our great caretaker and Mother.

I walk between worlds to help others find their own path home.