My bio

My background is in nonprofit management, fundraising and social media. I almost became an attorney, but instead decided to dedicate myself to connecting people to the planet, each other and themselves through nonprofit management and social networking.

I have 10 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Part of the reason that I am interested in nonprofits was because I was raised by people who strongly valued education and community. I grew up in Lansing, Michigan. My mother and my father both came from the East Coast, but from different circumstances. One grew up in the Bronx projects while the other came from the relatively pastural Exeter, New Hampshire.

After high school, I moved away to attend Sarah Lawrence College. I later finished my Bachelor's at the Honors College of Michigan State University. In 2001, I earned my Master's in nonprofit management at Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago.

Learning the story of the solitary imprisonment of the Angola Three while working for ACLU attorneys and preparing to go to law school inspired me to organize a 12-stop Chicago event tour for recently released prisoner Robert King. This was my first major venture in political issues and event planning.

Later I learned more about environmental issues by working in rural areas in Oaxaca, Mexico and the western US.

Today I work at Bay Area Nonviolent Communication
and Bay Nature Institute. Other organizations I have worked for include:

• The International Maritime Center (Now the SCI-Bay Area Center)
•         Student Conservation Association
•         Tibetan Aid Project
•         U.S. Bureau of Land Management – Winnemucca
• Yakama Indian Fire Management