about me
I’ve held hands, protest signs, pelvis models, newborns, and once, an overwhelmed mother-in-law. I’ve wrapped swaddles around babies, my sister’s postpartum belly in her kitchen after her third (and last) baby was born, and warm towels over the shoulders of those in labor as they step out of a birthing tub.
My career background is in reproductive health and non profits as an educator, direct care professional, and in state policy and project management.
I have a BA in Gender Studies, am a certified full spectrum doula and childbirth educator, and am a member of the Queer Doula Network. I've presented and published research on the intersections of sexuality, gender, and queer culture, and been shown in art exhibitions in the midwest.
My practice invites you to be tender and curious, honoring your right to be who you are as you are; nurturing the truth that you are the expert of your own experience and knowledge building is a collaborative mixture of education, experience, and intuition.
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basics
BA: Gender Studies with minor in sociology
CD (DTI): full spectrum doula certification through Doula Trainings International (fertility, conception, birth control, birth, postpartum, basic feeding, abortion)
CBE (DTI): certified Childbirth Educator
Co-founder: Doula Network of Northern Indiana
Member: of the Queer Doula Network
career background
Planned Parenthood sexual education internship; certified medical assistant at a family practice for a WHNP (Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner); project management for inclusive / reproductive health care locations; Planned Parenthood policy team as Indiana State Organizer for St. Joseph and Lake counties.
my work:
Print Collate, Staple: femme identities in queer zine publications and culture: awarded a SMART grant in 2015 to research femme, queer identities in zines and zine culture in the 00s-10s.
Abortion is a Social Good: Co-developer of an art installation meant to create positive conversations around abortion displayed at the Civil Rights Heritage Center and the LGBTQ Center in South Bend, Indiana.
Queer Art Expo: photography work displayed at art gallery show about queer-ness by queers.
Satin and Switchblades: Femme Identities and Strapping on the Patriarchy or Fucking our Way to Feminism? : research papers presented at IU Gender Studies conferences.
special projects
GRWM series: documenting four people people getting ready for an average day
Intimacy series: exploration of what intimacy looks like beyond boudoir and outside the male gaze
