Consulting

My consulting style has been described as “therapy in the best way possible.” As someone with training in both experience design and curriculum design, I ground every consultation project in two questions:

  1. What outcomes does this project need to accomplish?

  2. How do you (or those you serve) want to feel?

Experience design can be best described like this: a writer decides to write a book; an experience designer decides they want to create a feeling of connectedness, and then decides what medium will best accomplish that. I have found that experience design is an incredibly effective methodology for approaching program and event work in a more intentional, community-driven way.

Having spent over a decade in the nonprofit industrial complex as a queer and chronically ill woman, all of my work endeavors to create programs and environments that are queered, designed to be inclusive rather than accommodating, and that de-center white supremacy and colonialist culture. I pay particular attention to the ways commonly accepted leadership and activism education can reinforce a culture of burnout, ableism, and white supremacy when not interrogated.

I’m happy to consult or do contract work in the following areas:

  • Planning and facilitation of staff retreats (*I’m feeling extra excited about this right now! Down with terrible staff retreats!)

  • Evaluation and recommendations for an existing program

  • Program & curricular design or re-design, particularly for youth and young adults

  • Experiential design and event planning for meetings and conferences

  • Workshop and training facilitation

If you’re unsure if your vision fits within my scope of work, don’t hesitate to ask!

My rates are set with consideration for historically and intentionally marginalized identities, particularly for those doing direct impact work within their own communities. I do not work with faith-based organizations.

Past clients include She’s the First, Novelly, the International Dark-Sky Association, and community-based organizations ranging from orchestras to fandom groups. I’ve been honored to be invited to participate in genius banks for Pop Culture Collaborative and Ben and Jerry’s. Over the last decade I’ve had the opportunity to speak and facilitate for a variety of classrooms, organizations, and conferences, including the American Library Association, USC Civic Media Lab’s Connected Learning Summit, the Best Out-of-School Time (BOOST) conference, and a plethora of fandom and literature conventions.