I am a white American (she/her) and descendent of settlers from the British Isles, among them southern slave owners, western expansionists, and Appalachian farmers. I am responsible to that legacy, to my related and chosen families, to the next generations, and to the lands on which and from which I thrive. I currently live on Canarsie and Munsee Lenape ancestral land sometimes known as Queens, New York.
My family taught me to love and respect the natural world around us: from eating peas and herbs from kitchen gardens, to learning the names of trees and caring to look them up when we didn’t know, to playing outdoors by camping, hiking, skiing, and visiting national parks.
This comfort being outside became a lifeline for my depressed, confused little teenage self. With my parents’ encouragement and financial support, I went on a month-long backpacking and climbing trip in Wyoming before my junior year of high school. While climbing the Grand Teton, our final challenge of the trip–up at 3:00am in the cold, tied into a rope team with a guide named Bean, the stars melting into sunrise–my anxious, rattling brain grew quiet the first time in my life. It’s hard to convey how powerful, healing, and life-changing that moment was.
That experience inspired my career in experiential outdoor education, a lifelong climbing practice, and a love of long backpacking trips. I have worked for the Colorado Outward Bound School as an instructor, staff trainer, and on-call incident support; and I have coached new climbers from ages three to eighty-seven. I continue to instruct wilderness first aid and first responder courses for Desert Mountain Medicine.
