ROOT AND BLOOM

WORDS ARE MATTER. MAKE THEM MATTER.

There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity. —Bryan Stevenson

You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time. —Angela Davis

Summary of Services Offered

Editing: Specializing in literary and scholarly manuscripts, policy briefs, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

Research & Consulting: Providing actionable research and counsel that contributes to a thriving, just, and equitable world.

Education & Mentorship: Facilitating classes and workshops in community settings that promote critical inquiry and creative growth. Mentoring aspiring and veteran authors, community activists, and advocates.

Event Facilitation: Organizing virtual and in-person events that offer engaged, empathic, and authentic approaches to entrenched social divides and issues.

Strategic Communications: Co-creating purposeful, meaningful, and authentic communication that moves and mobilizes target audiences.

College & Graduate School Admissions: Offering hands-on guidance and support from start to finish, from anticipation to acceptance.

Grounded in Care, Collaboration & Possibility

I help individuals and communities envision and co-create more spacious, dynamic, and equitable futures. As an educator, editor, consultant, convener, and researcher at the nexus of economic, racial, and social justice, I build social infrastructure and communities of care that lift people up instead of pinning them down or hemming them in.

My interwoven yet diverse strands of work are driven by the causes and people I care about—from the books I edit, to the students I teach, to the people I reach, to the issues I raise, to the projects I lead. They are unified by a commitment to Connection, Collaboration, Creativity, Context, Community, and Care.

I strive to amplify underrepresented voices and move underserved communities to the centers of social and political concern—in print and in public. My work spans and weaves together the following sectors/issues: abolitionism and the criminal legal system; arts and culture; civic engagement and local government; community defense, development, and power-building; economic justice; education; health, housing, and homelessness; food security and agricultural equity; immigration and immigrant protections; information integrity, equity, and literacy; policy advocacy, implementation, and evaluation; public librarianship; racial equity, justice, and reparations; and social justice. It is place-based, dynamic, and relational, continuously informed by historical forces, contemporary realities, and ongoing struggles.

Root and Bloom is the professional expression of my quest to continually ask questions, share ideas, and expand the boundaries of my personal orientation and our collective understanding and commitments. You can learn more about my background, approach, and aspirations in the “Biography” section of my website.

Scope of Work & Impact

Editing: I align my approach with professional orientation, methodology, disposition, and intended audience and assist aspiring and veteran authors and emergent and established organizations in a variety of genres and mediums. I specialize in scholarly manuscripts, policy briefs, literary fiction, and creative nonfiction.

Research & Consulting: I provide actionable research and counsel to individuals, organizations, public agencies, and communities to contribute to a thriving, just, and equitable world. I help design, execute, and advise on strategy to initiate government policies, initiatives, and processes and develop local campaigns, actions, and program implementation.

Education & Mentorship: In diverse community settings, I create emergent curriculum that resonates with the world we’re living in and asks the questions demanded of people who want to live responsibly, ethically, and compassionately within it. I mentor aspiring and veteran authors alongside grassroots community activists as well as those involved in local, state, federal, and global advocacy.

Event Facilitation: I organize events across audiences, platforms, issues, and geographies to meet people where they are and offer engaged, empathic, and authentic approaches to entrenched social divides and issues. These events center people with lived experience of the impacts and issues under discussion, highlighting the expertise they possess and solutions they advance.

Strategic Communications: My expertise in diverse campaigns, platforms, and venues centers purposeful, meaningful, and authentic communication. I am skilled at engaging with multiple stakeholders, balancing and blending perspectives, and crafting messaging that moves and mobilizes.

College & Graduate School Admissions: In an increasingly competitive and confusing environment, I provide hands-on guidance and support from start to finish, from anticipation to acceptance. I help parents, youth, and adults survey the admissions landscape, navigate the selection process, stay on track mentally and emotionally, and compose masterful, meaningful essays.

Moving With Community Toward Equity & Empathy

I am dedicated to excavating and examining root causes to catalyze strategic interventions that promote more inclusive communities and equitable resourcing. I help refine and design human-centered systems, policies, processes, and places that are accessible, accountable, and sustainable.

All my work strives to cultivate openness and inspired expression, catalyze social change and racial equity, and center service to others—in the classroom, on the page, and in my community. I seek, source, and disseminate community-centered data—both narratives and numbers—to accelerate social justice and racial equity and directly improve the lives of low-income individuals and people of color. In partnership with public agencies, service providers, nonprofits, local government, and coalitions, I have designed and provided counsel on programs, policies, and interventions that promote increased racial, health, and economic equity.

I’ve led and worked on campaigns to: secure public dollars to provide direct cash for people returning from incarceration, low-income families, older adults, and former foster youth; launch a countywide library foundation to bridge equity and funding gaps; design and evaluate a guaranteed income program for student parents; create a learning cohort for county staff to evaluate policies, practices, and investments from an equity lens; secure funds for food security and rental assistance; increase the number of low-income households in a large housing development; help public systems, service providers, residents, and advocates collectively strategize, coordinate, and expand networks of care; institutionalize race equity in government; strengthen civic inclusion and engagement; amplify the accessibility, impact, and collaboration of the arts, education, and information sectors; and build a pipeline of youth leaders and lived experience experts.

Community-Based Learning For Collective Action

My work poses and responds to the following questions: Why and how should we care about each other’s stories? How can we use stories emergent from extreme and extraordinary conditions to surface and sort through concerns that are both deeply personal and critically social? How can we move from authentic conversation to meaningful action?

Fostering opportunities for inclusive community conversations and collective learning is my response to these questions. The events I organize range across audiences, platforms, issues, and geographies to meet people where they are and offer engaged, empathic, and nuanced approaches to entrenched social divides and issues. They consistently center people with lived experience of the impacts and issues under discussion, highlighting the expertise they possess and solutions they advance. They are intended to inform, inspire, and improve movement strategies for social justice.

I’ve facilitated forums on health equity, mass incarceration and criminal legal reform, voter engagement, censorship, guaranteed income, poverty, homelessness, and equitable access to education and the arts. I routinely lead workshops in libraries and community centers and conduct free online and in-person events for many different audiences.

Words (Are) Matter

Our words sculpt selves, build movements, change minds, transform lives, and sustain communities. I want my words to matter, and I want to help others make theirs matter, too. My practice focuses on cultivating and celebrating creative, authentic, and actionable communication for personal growth and social change. I help issues reach audience, ideas gain traction, stories discover shape, and people find voice, meaning, and connection.

I apply a strengths-based approach to bolster the animating visions and values of clients and students. My work is distinguished by the ethic of care and integrity that I bring to every project, cause, client, and student. Whether I am teaching a class on liberation movements; facilitating an abolitionist study group; leading a media literacy seminar; editing an anthology, article, or monograph; creating curriculum or campaign materials; or working in individual or collective settings, I seek to listen, connect, and reflect.

A sampling of recent projects registers the breadth of my experience and expertise: Indigenous Librarianship and Indigenous-led cultural stewardship; racial equity toolkits; higher education partnerships to support first generation students; representations of Indigenous characters and history in U.S. children’s literature; guaranteed income for economic and racial justice; trauma-informed mental health care and its impact on undocumented immigrants; Just Transition frameworks; a social benefit platform to enhance immigrants’ economic and social inclusion; conflict mineral trade in Central Africa; homelessness and public libraries; reference services and arts mentorship to formerly and currently incarcerated individuals; the impact of Black Lives Matter in the corporate sector; 1990s Caribbean artists; artist, author, and activist memoirs; national and local civil rights histories; policymaking with an equity lens; sites and histories of Black economic empowerment; environmental regulations and corporate climate commitments; and place-based campaigns to redress racial and economic harms.

Reflect, Repair, Transform

My work is rooted in a reparative framework that centers intention, attention, accountability, and transformation. While critical distance and illumination is a “precondition” for my work, these attributes mean nothing if I cannot apply analysis toward prescription. When I move through a manuscript or project or work with a client or student, my eye is trained toward respectful remedy. We collaborate to “get at the roots,” lift up the vital essence, and attend to areas of dis-ease or disharmony. We move together toward healing and wholeness.

I stood at the border, stood at the edge and claimed it as central. I claimed it as central and let the rest of the world move over to where I was. —Toni Morrison

Compassion is a verb. —Thich Nhat Hanh

Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. —Martin Luther King, Jr.