Liivingspark

I've been blessed to live all over the United States in my short 31 years on this planet, including Virginia, Florida, Wisconsin, Tennessee, New Mexico, and now California. I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 5 years with my partner, Chris. We've been blessed to have experienced living in Albany, Oakland and San Francisco, and by far, Oakland is my favorite place to be! We just moved back to Oakland for the second time and it feels just like being home. We live in the beautiful Lake Merritt neighborhood and I thank the Goddess everyday for making it possible for me to live here again. My very favorite part of being in this 'hood is the lake - it's beautiful to look at morning, noon and night, I love the birds (permanent residents include Canadian Geese, an array of ducks, sea gulls, cranes and a myriad of other winged creatures), and I especially love that every day, no matter the time, there are a ton of people walking its circumference. I am beyond thankful for the blessing the lake provides me!

I am also thankful on a daily basis for my education, for I believe it has really helped to shape me into the person I am today. I am unashamedly proud of my education, because for one, I worked my ass of for it and two, never in all my time in school did I ever let money play a part in the choices I made. (Although I resent that education in this country is so incredibly expensive and that the only way to get the kind of education that every person deserves is commit to a life-long investment in enormous educational loans.) For me, my education was a creative and necessary tool to discovering latent passions in me that were waiting to be nurtured and expressed. Therefore, I worked to receive my bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies with an emphasis in Hinduism and Buddhism from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I then received my masters in Humanities and Leadership with a focus in Activism and Social Change from the New College of California in San Francisco. The sum of my educational and activist experiences has provided the foundation for my deep commitment to the larger progressive movement for human rights, gender, race, environmental and socio-economic justice. I have had the absolute privilege to work in various capacities side-by-side with some of the most amazing grassroots organizations throughout the country, including SAGE Council (Sacred Alliances for Grassroots Equality), Seva Foundation, UNM African American Studies Mentorship Program, Healthcare for the Homeless Harm Reduction Center, Tibetan Aid Project, Oakland Institute, Circle of Life, Rainforest Action Network, Women's Earth Alliance and San Francisco Women Against Rape as a Rape Crisis Counselor. I am also a member of D2K, an organization dedicated to skill sharing and inspiration for those working in the diversity and anti-oppression fields.