List of 12 frequently asked questions.

• MY PRIMARY ROLE AT THACHER: 

  Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

• FAVORITE JOB PERKS: 

  I feel really privileged to live on the edge of wilderness and public land. Campus borders the Los Padres National Forest with trails that lead into the Sespe. It is both humbling and exhilarating to share a campus with mountain lions and bears, oh my! 

• I KNEW I WANTED TO WORK AT THACHER WHEN: 

  I understood that faculty and staff are just challenged to expand their relationship to healthy risk just as much as the students are. It’s risky to take 250+ teens into the back country, it’s risky to take on the challenge of expanding systems and institutions that were built for and by white men and boys to meet the needs of an ever expanding community, its risky to let your toddlers experiment with independence while sharing the trail with rattlesnakes - It’s also creative and curious practice with brilliant and caring people in an amazing valley that is far far away from any major big box stores, where Birkenstocks and cowboy boots are viewed as work attire. The avocados, views and having your family join in on the Boarding School fun helps too. 

• WHEN NOT IN MY OFFICE I CAN BE FOUND: 

  In the kitchen, in the dirt or in the water with my husband and two young children. 

• SINCE YOU ASKED ME TO BRAG, HERE'S THE PROFESSIONAL
  ACCOMPLISHMENT I'M MOST PROUD OF: 

  Over the years I’ve been able to host a wide variety of events that centralize the people and movements contributing to more just futures. For many years I viewed them as “part of the work” but after a mentor advised me to compile them all, I was able to appreciate the impact more fully. The invitation helped me recall the wisdom in the space and thousands of students and community members who carried teachings out of each gathering, this helped me expand how I relate to hope as a practice and discipline, and appreciate how much knowledge I was also able to absorb during major periods of social and political unrest. 

• THE BOOK, MOVIE, WORK OF ART, OR PIECE OF MUSIC I CANNOT IMAGINE LIFE WITHOUT:

  Cultural power is so important to movement building and I believe everyone engages in their own artistic practice whether they see themselves as an artist or not. I spent several years working at the intersection of environmental justice and public art – from giant puppets to murals to filmmaking I value accessible and activating art – that is at shorthand definition of cultural power. A few of my favorite artists include Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Nisha Seti, Chip Thomas, and Isaiah Zagar but some of the most moving pieces of art I’ve ever seen have been street art or protest art whose artists are not as obvious.

  &

  Lord of the Rings, which anyone who has been on an EDT with me knows regrettably well, and anything by Chomsky. 

• FAVORITE PLACE ON EARTH: 

  Darband, Iran

• FAVORITE PLACE IN MY IMAGINATION: 

  Monarch overwintering habitats, where they spend the cold months on their migration journeys across the Americas. It’s real life Ferngully and where I go in my head for a moment of magic and safety. There are several near us here in the Central Coast. 

• FAVORITE PLACE AT THACHER: 

  Every step on every trail fills me with a sense of abundance and ease. 

• HARDLY ANYBODY KNOWS THAT I… 

  I traveled independently to nearly every country in the “Middle East” prior to my 21st birthday.

• WHAT I WANTED TO BE WHEN I GREW UP (WHEN I WAS 10)

  …tornado chaser…potion maker…secret agent…all very real professions, I insist. I’ve landed somewhere along that continuum here at Thacher. 

• WHAT I WANT TO BE WHEN I GROW UP (NOW): 

  Happy, at ease, and content in my relations with people and the planet.