Community Involvement: I serve on the board of national creative change agency Resource Media and am on the founding board of Real Queens Fix Each Other’s Crowns. Prior to this, I spent six years on the board as VP of Governance for the Playing for Change Foundation, a global music nonprofit focused on creating positive social change through music and arts education. I find community in Nonviolent Austin, Undoing White Supremacy Austin, the Plum Blossom Sangha and KOOP Radio, where I host monthly radio shows Nonviolent Austin Radio Hour and Racism on the Levels.

Geography/Roots: A fifth-generation Texan born on the unceded land of the Karankawas, I spent 20 years on the road with stopovers in San Diego, NYC, DC, and Boston before moving back to Austin with my seven-year-old son, Rumi, husband Nabil, dog Bandit and cat Cauli.

My home sits on the unceded Indigenous lands of the Alabama-Coushatta, Caddo, Carrizo/Comecrudo, Coahuiltecan, Comanche, Jumanos, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, Sana, Tonkawa and Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo. I extend honor and gratitude to all the American Indian and Indigenous Peoples and communities who have continuously stewarded this land.

I invite you to develop your own land acknowledgment, referring to the Native Land Guide to honor the Indigenous people from the land you’re on right now. Two local Indigenous led organzations to support are the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project and Red Salmon Arts.

Sources of JOY: music, the ocean, traveling, cooking, growing plants, animals, biking, yoga, meditation, and playing trivia with my family