Artist, Storyteller, & Researcher

I am a PhD student in the Department of Health Promotion & Policy at University of Massachusetts Amherst. My research and practice is grounded in the use of arts in public health. An applied theatre artist, storyteller, writer, and percussionist, I believe in the healing and transformative power of the arts. 

Through an intersectional, anti-racist, social determinants lens, I focus on the health of all Black and brown people, with particular interest in collaborating with girls and gender/sexuality non-confirming youth. I use applied theatre, poetry, storytelling, play, music, dance, and other creative methods as a means of "bending the future" together...or...as forms of inquiry and analysis. I channel these interests by working to  understand how systems and social environments reproduce health inequities among families and young peoples, while working with communities to identify anti-racist and anti-colonist approaches to more caring, collaborative, community-accountable approaches to health education, health promotion, and health equity for all.

My scholarship is transdisciplinary and community-centered. I utilize Critical Narrative Intervention (CNI), Participatory Narrative Analysis, Youth/Participatory Action Research, Arts-based Research and Applied Theatre as key methodological tools in tackling research questions and practicing community-accountability and radical healing.