Candidate for
Director; Manila Community Services District

I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up between there and New York City, with occasional side trips to places like rural Mississippi, West Memphis, Arkansas, State College and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Montrose, Colorado. My family moved around a lot. As an adult I lived mostly on Long Island, New York, in various suburban communities on the periphery of New York City.

I have worked since I graduated high school. I was in the business of customer service when human beings actually spoke to customers, and I supervised people in a shipping department and a warehouse (even drove a forklift occasionally). I spent 15 years in various aspects of pharmaceutical marketing and advertising, preparing communications plans and creating advertising materials for pharmaceutical products. I've also worked as an editor of a line of study aids for law students. I taught college-level courses in Women's Studies and Cultural Anthropology as a Teaching Associate at UCLA.

I have traveled in Latin America and the Caribbean, and at one time I spoke Spanish fluently; since coming to Humboldt I'm pretty rusty at it. I have conducted academic research in the village of Cachiguzo, Ecuador (near Cuenca), in downtown Los Angeles, and in Santa Monica, California. My research in the US involved the study of power and the politics of race and culture in school settings. I have also written and secured grants for my research as a graduate student, and prepared grant reports as part of my work with the Environmental Protection Information Center.

When I first arrived in Humboldt, I was working with elderly people as a caregiver and an advocate. I have been a freelance graphic artist and I am an environmental activist. I am a musician, poet and songwriter and I frequently perform around the Humboldt Bay area. I have family in Memphis and in the other Bay Area, and I live with my two black cats in Manila.