DC raised me.
I grew up in Washington, DC. My first job was at the DC Public Library, where I worked the circulation desk, supported youth programming, and taught Microsoft Word to senior citizens. That job gave me my first rule: explain things so the person in front of you can use them.
Rochester made me.
I came to the University of Rochester as a Posse Scholar. I studied neuroeconomics and international relations, served as a Student Alumni Ambassador, and lived in Douglass Leadership House. After graduating, I stayed and spent years in city government: first as a Legislative Aide to the City Council, then as an executive staff assistant in the Mayor's Office.
There I restarted MentorUp, the mayor's mentorship program, and built a partnership between the Mayor's Office and Rochester's Divine Nine organizations. I also served as branch director of NAACP Rochester Branch #2172, helping reactivate it through grassroots organizing, and co-directed the Link Gallery at City Hall.
Rochester taught me how institutions work from the inside, and where they fail the people they serve.
Lupus is upgrading me.
I live with four types of lupus: lupus nephritis, cutaneous lupus, lupus cerebritis, and lupus myelitis. I budget my stamina every day. It took things I'd have kept. It's not a gift. It's a clean slate I'm already writing on.
Illness changed how I work. I now write full time, and I bring one rule to every page, panel, and policy: the people a change affects should be able to understand it, evaluate it, and shape it.
I took that rule to the TEDxRochester stage, where I spoke on algorithmic bias. I carry it into a draft ADA policy framework, and into every poem.
