In this blog I aim to be honest and vulnerable. I am a privileged white woman using my research expertise to support a charity that is doing grassroots community organizing with low-income people that use our programs and services. The organization is progressive and diverse. The work is challenging, inspiring, and sometimes feels hopeless. Sometimes I don’t know where I fit. Sometimes I feel guilty.
More often, I feel angry about the extreme amounts of inequality in our society. At work I see a great deal of suffering. At home (just 20 miles away) I see one of the wealthiest communities in the world. The central question: how do we build the motivation among all people to eliminate suffering and toxic stress by sharing power and wealth so that we can all thrive?
About me: I hold PhD in Sociology and Public Policy from Stanford University. I support social movement development in the nonprofit sector through strategic planning, program design, and evaluation. I analyze current events and my experiences serving low-income people through a lens of social justice and social movement building. I am published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the American Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare. I am also a wife and mother of two small children.