Who I am
I am a coach, consultant, facilitator and trainer who is committed to using my privilege and power in service of a fundamentally more just world.
About Me
I am white, cisgender, and come from an owning class background. I am ethnically and culturally Jewish, although I was raised Quaker. My dad’s family escaped the Holocaust in 1941, and their experience of assimilation into America -and, more specifically, into whiteness – has shaped my understanding about the intersection of race and class in this country.
I have an abiding commitment to personal learning and growth. In the last few years, I have deepened my awareness of my race, class, and gender identities through multiple classes, learning circles, and family history research.
I grew up in New York City and moved to the Seattle-area in 1991. I am a long-time resident of South Seattle and am co-parenting fabulous 11-year old twins. I also have an adult child and two adult stepchildren. When I am not engaged with my kids, I love spending time in the mountains, playing board games, having intimate conversations with friends and discovering local coffee shops and hole-in-the-wall restaurants.
Professional Experience
Nonprofit Work
I began my career on Wall Street and earned an MBA from the JL Kellogg School of Management, but realized pretty quickly that working for profit rather than people was at odds with my values. Over the last 30 years, I have toggled back and forth between management roles in nonprofit organizations and consulting. My most recent management position was as Co-Director of the Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project (2009-2017). My nonprofit and philanthropic-sector experience include extensive work in:
- Strategic planning
- Program development and management
- Group facilitation
- Operations management – finance and HR
- Working with boards on governance
- Building anti-racist cultures and practices in the workplace
Equity Work
A large part of my consulting practice has centered equity work. I am a Senior Trainer with Class Action, for whom I develop and co-facilitate public workshops on the intersection of class and race. Through Class Action, I have also worked with organizations to dismantle white supremacy norms in their institutions. Recently, I have also written and led webinars about the role of progressive donors during COVID.
In addition to my work with Class Action, I have partnered with trainers of color in the Seattle area to lead anti-racism workshops and facilitate white caucus groups.
Donor Organizing
I have organized people around issues of economic inequality and the racial wealth gap, particularly around issues of tax fairness. As a regional representative for the Institute for Policy Studies and a member of the local Washington Progress Alliance, I organized people with wealth to speak out on behalf of the estate and capital gains taxes. I have also spoken at conferences and webinars to educate and inspire people with money to radicalize their giving and wealth stewardship.
Philanthropy
and Giving
My professional work is informed by, and informs, my lifelong personal relationship with wealth and philanthropy.
In recent years, I have undertaken family history work and deepened my understanding of how my class, gender and racial identities intersect with systems of white supremacy. The result of this journey is a growing focus on redistribution and reparations in my giving and philanthropy.
In deconstructing and reconstructing my relationship to wealth, I have asked two fundamental questions: what am I willing to give, and equally important, what am I willing to give up? I am committed to working with people who are sincerely willing to engage with both of these questions.
I have extensive experience in organized philanthropy. I joined my first giving circle, Social Justice Fund, in 2000 and formed a donor advised fund in 2008. In 2017, I cofounded a private foundation, the Arch Community Fund, with my siblings. Arch supports transformative organizing for systemic change with a focus on intersectional racial justice. In addition to making grants to small, radical organizations, Arch has adopted an anti-capitalist investment philosophy in which it prioritizes direct community investments over the stock market.