Activism
Nonbinary. Queer. White. Progressive with Conservative Family. Uncle. Raised in Massachusetts. College Educated.
These labels influence how I see and experience the world. I recognize and continue to unpack my privilege as a white person in America and learned my way into understanding the importance of equity. Through struggles with my own queer identity and as an observer of otherness and separation, I care about inclusion, representation, and equity. I believe access to education and having the resources to explore one’s own ways of thinking, being, and doing will change the course of humanity.
My experiences have led me to being involved in or support the following work:
Love Your Labels
Love Your Labels believes each person should be able to live free and express who they are without fear of bias, stigma, and shame influencing their opportunity to live happy, healthy, and fulfilled lives.
Our mission is to support LGBTQ+ youth through art, fashion, and design and work with families and communities to create inclusive and loving space everywhere.
I cofounded Love Your Labels in 2018 with a close-knit group of queer folx who knew we needed to take an active role in making the world a safer, supportive, and affirming place for LGBTQ+ youth.
Black lives matter.
It is critical that we talk about antiracism. It is critical that white people acknowledge their privilege. It is critical that I, as white white person, continue to educate myself and advocate for the movements for Black lives. All lives don’t matter until Black trans lives matter.
Follow, donate, and listen to this black, queer-led organization: Black Visions Collective (BLVC)
And, defund the police. (Wait! Police are necessary.. Wait! Are they?)
Voter activism.
Please vote. Like, seriously.
Local Activism in Worcester, MA
I believe in inclusive, equitable, sustainable, and prosperous economic development strategies (notice the order). I believe in resident-powered growth. People are the experts of their own spaces. We need to listen to them. At Action! by Design, we address challenges through community engagement where resident and stakeholder voices are at the center of crafting solutions.
Worcester Education Collaborative
The mission of the Worcester Education Collaborative (WEC) is to engage our community in fulfilling its responsibility to ensure that excellence in education is available to all public school students and that they are prepared for success in college, career, and life.
I joined the board of WEC in 2016 because public education is the great equalizer, yes, but also how we will continue to evolve as a humanity that seeks to make violence, otherness, and harm a part of a distant history of our growth. At WEC, we believe students deserve access to resources that help them achieve. We believe in educational equity, in healing-centered and trauma-informed teaching practices, and social-emotional learning.
Through my work with WEC, I have served on the steering committee and technology subcommittee that crafted the WPS Strategic Plan. I am part of the Worcester Education Roundtable, a coalition of partners (colleges, universities, cultural organizations, nonprofits, businesses, youth, and families) working to align key programs, outreach, and advocacy efforts with a commitment to equity for historically marginalized people in the PreK-12 public education system in the City of Worcester.
My core passion related to this work is in elevating the access students have to the Internet and devices that enable learning as well creating efficient mechanisms for ensuring each student is receiving well-rounded learning each year.
Living in Freedom Together (LIFT)
LIFT is a survivor-led organization supporting people impacted by the sex trade. Led by and for survivors, we’re building a world where survivors are valued, equal members of the community. Their voice and choices are honored implicitly.
I was humbled to join the board in 2020 to help support this invaluable organization that helps women take control of their own lives on a daily basis.
My core passion related to this work is in dismantling systems of power used to attack and exploit people in vulnerable situations and in the reeducation of boys and men. People aren’t products. Our vision is a world where systems of prostitution no longer exist and people no longer feel it is their right to purchase another human’s body.