I am an artist, community organizer, educator and outdoorswoman.

I have spent over 25 years creating art across multiple mediums, and building community movements, organizations, and programs that support joy and connection to the outdoors, and build social and ecological justice in our world.

Artist

I am a writer, singer, rapper, percussionist, mover, and facilitator of communal experiences.   My art tells stories that are often left on the margin, builds power and joy in community, and makes visible our deep intertwinement with the natural world.  My background in filmmaking, and a variety of movement and music modalities, along with my lifelong devotion to the craft of wordsmithing, has allowed me to move across disciplines - often driven by whatever story I feel needs telling in whatever medium my body yearns to inhabit. 

Organizer

I am the founder of Salted Roots, formerly operating under the name Brown Girl Surf.  As the co-founder and later executive director of Brown Girl Surf, I initiated and launched Brown Girl Surf’s community programs, which over 9 years grew into the Salted Roots grassroots community movement.  This movement, fiercely centered in BIPOC leadership, advocacy, and the principals of community organizing, has significantly shifted surf culture in the state of California and successfully advocated for critical reforms in public access to state beaches, while welcoming hundreds of girls, women, and non-binary folx of color to see themselves as surfers and ocean stewards.  Prior to that I developed and managed several innovative youth programs centering environmental leadership in BIPOC spaces, working in partnership with United Roots, Urban Peace Movement, Urban ReLeaf, and Growing a Global Heart. 

I continue to work as a community organizer in my Oakland neighborhoodof San Antonio, where I was the founding coordinator, and strategic advisor to Friends of San Antonio Park, a coalition dedicated to building the power of working families in determining the future of the park and neighborhood. In Oakland’s biggest budget deficit year in four decades, we secured 4 million dollars for a park improvements envisioned by community members. 

Educator and Outdoorswoman:

 I have worked as a naturalist in the Marin Headlands with Naturebridge, an outdoor recreation guide for East Bay Regional Parks, and a program designer for Oakland Parks and Recreation.  Before this I was a lead teacher and community forester for Yale University’s Urban Ecology Initiative, in New Haven. As a teaching artist, I lead youth percussion classes with Play for Change, and have guided youth hip hop artists to create collaborative performances and workshops throughout Oakland.  I have worked in national parks, in local community gardens, in play yards, and in grade school classrooms, as a full time teacher, a science specialist, and an urban forester.  I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Brown University, a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from Yale’s School of the Environment, and a Certificate in Digital Video Production from New York University.

Earlier in my career, I worked extensively in Asia.  First as a program officer for the IUCN’s Asian Forest and Wetlands programs, and then later in Thailand’s Pattani region, documenting the stories of communities whose livelihoods have been impacted by environmental degradation.  This work resulted in an internationally broadcasted short documentary, The Recruit, and a book, Just Enough, available through the University of Washington Press.

My work has been featured in the SF Chronicle, NBC Bay Area, PBS Northern California, Al Jazeera English, The Root, East Bay Express, High Country News, KQED, and on NPR’s Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan. I have been recognized as an ESPN W Everyday Hero, and as an Audobon Toyota TogetherGreen Fellow.