My Role: C-Suite executive supporting a growing team, and hundreds of entrepreneurs to better lead and grow their small businesses.

My Inquiry: How does the existing financial system perpetuate different forms of oppression, and what can I do about it?

My Learning: Through various roles as MD of Entrepreneurship, MD of Strategic Partnerships, and COO, I designed human-centered innovative programming and led organizational development. I learned to translate MBA concepts into practical tools, to understand the investor mindset, and to build values-aligned strategic partnerships supporting the small business community. I learned that this work is hard, and that leaders of organizations cannot do it alone.

My Role: MBA Student at Golden Gate University

My Inquiry: How does our economic system maintain the status quo, and what is my role in disrupting it?

My Learnings: I cultivated the hard skills of business such as strategy development, accounting, finance, marketing, operations and management. I also learned to discern the unique role of small business owners as change-makers and community builders.

My Role: Contractor at various non-profits in the SF Bay Area

My Inquiry: What is my Work, and where do I want to make my impact?

My Learnings: Through exposure to nonprofit work across sectors, such as: racial justice and advocacy, workforce development, environmental sustainability, affordable housing, and adult education. I learned to see the relationship between systematic issues, the challenges nonprofits face, and sought tools I needed to do something about it.

My Role: Master’s Student of Sustainability and Leadership in Karlskrona, Sweden

My Inquiry: How might my work contribute to a more sustainable and equitable world?

My Learnings: I practiced trans-disciplinary teamwork, engineered strategic human-centered solutions to global problems, and studied the systems designed to keep people from meeting their basic human needs. The earth can devolve into a kingdom of grass and insects, or it can be a thriving place where humans understand their interconnectedness to one another and all of life.

My Role: Elementary School Teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District

My Inquiry: What role does school play in creating community, and how do I advocate for my community?

My Learnings: I witnessed the impact of the invisible oppressive systems in SF, such as the school to prison pipeline, I advocated for my students and led an effort to develop a relevant, heart-centered nonviolence curriculum with the Omega Boys Club. I learned that teachers are learners, always.