Two Spirit visionary whose family taught me to walk with an open and caring heart.

The word “NO” is not in my vocabulary. I am a visionary cultural educator who dares to enter spaces, build platforms, and form partnerships where none existed.

For years we would go to spaces where we were not seen or heard, speak up and demand that we be part of the conversation.

The sad truth is that too many know nothing about my people, about Native Amercians. When I hear so called “woke” folks speak their “wokeness” is very narrow and limited. It seems they still have not “awken” to who we are the original people of this land. We are all around you yet we are not seen.

We are all around you yet you do not know us.

So I am a cultural educator who ensures our stories, our histories, our songs, our traditions are heard. For 25 years I have been part of the launch of the Bay Area American IndiaTwoSpirits (BAAITS) Drum and remain an active member today. I am the original Two-Spirit Drumkeeper for the BAAITS Drum, teaching traditional songs and drum protocols, and helping create and sponsor the annual Two-Spirit Powwows in San Francisco since 2012. Through persistence, commitment, and collective effort, doors once closed to us opened—because we refused to stop.

I have sung with several Native drums: Red Tail Drum, Sweet Medicine Drum, Two Eages, Turel Women Rising and still sing with Baaist Drum.

As a youth I was trained to be a community organizer and through the Quakers I assisted families to visit their loved ones in jali. We provided resources and transportation. In college I organized the first Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, and People of Color Award ceremony. In my work life as Human Resources professional, I broke barriers by recruting and hiring qualified people of color as professors, administrators and professionals. There was alot of resistance to hiring qualified People of Color but I advocated and opened doors. I make things happen as an organizer and form partnerships.

I have served on numerous Native American and professional boards of directors. As a people-centered Human Resources consultant, I value collaboration and know the strength each person brings to the circle.

As a poet and writer, I dare to speak truth and look beyond the façade.
We are the ones our ancestors have been waiting for.

I walk and live from my heart connected to all the relatives as part of the circle