Healing and Expressive Arts Education
Anti-Oppression, Community Culture-Building, & Earth Stewardship

Education History and Certifications:

2004 Bachelors of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology, minor in Spanish and Communications
Wright State University

2005-2007
Institute for Integrative Nutrition. NYC
Holistic Health Coaching Certification

2010-Present
I study Traditional Southern Italian & Sicilian Drum, Song, and Dance with teachers in Sicily, Italy and the US. My primary teacher is Barbara Crescimanno, Arci Tavola Tonda, Palermo, Sicily. Beginning in 2020, I started teaching music classes in this tradition.

2022 -2026 MA Humanities – Applied Ethnomusicology, with a certificate in Applied Expressive Arts
Antioch University- Santa Barbara (1 Semester) MFA in Playwriting
Goddard College (1 Semester) MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts - Decolonial Arts Praxis concentration
Antioch University  - Finished here with Individualized self-design MA
My Self-Design coursework focused on Applied Ethnomusicology and Decolonial Arts, with an emphasis on Embodied, Auto-Ethnographic, and Arts-Based research methods. As a Scholar-Practitioner, I engage my traditional music practice as an embodied method of accessing and preserving Ancestral memory and facilitating intergenerational healing and integration. I also explore the oral tradition of community music as applied practice and communal ‘technology’ in co-regulation and holding of thresholds in community life. I did cross-cultural studies with Southern Italian Tarantellas and South Africa UbuNgoma Traditional Healing methods. My studies also emphasized designing a personal code of ethics for being a culture-bearer of a tradition.

2024 – Present
UbuNgoma Traditional Healing Apprenticeship

Community Arts Practice and Learning-

2010-present – I lead circle songs as embodied practice, and have done this on and off over the years.

2010- present - Study community music traditions of Sicily and Southern Italy.

2010 - present - Singing Nettle Herbcrafts, Community herb-crafting education and practice.

2011-2013 -Into the Dark Forest – I performed an auto-ethnographic solo, ritual theatre piece, including song and theatrical verse, that tells the story of my healing journey. Recorded and edited as a DVD.

2014-2016 - Founded and co-facilitated Sol Rising: Transformative Arts Troupe – A small group of women doing somatic, healing work, and generating seasonally-based ritual theatre and community ceremony (offered to the wider community) generated from the emergent themes arising in our work together.

2012, 2013, 2014 - Sacred theatre women’s initiation container, ‘Women In Power’, ALisa Starkweather Jude Blitz, Nicola Kirk, including supporting Shadow Work facilitation process

2017 - Present - “Bee-Tender” - Answered the call to build relationship with and learn to tend Bee colonies on our family farm. I learn from Ariella Daly and Honey Bee Wild, a feminist, animist tradition. I work with top bar hives in consent-based practice.

2018 - Eugene O-Neill National Puppetry Conference

2018 - Completion of Remo HealthRhythms Therapeutic Drumming Basic Facilitator Training

2022 - Playback Theatre completion of Basic Training with Randy Mulder of NYC Playback

2024 – Chicago Puppetry Festival workshop “The Other” with Natacha Bellova and Tita Iocobelli.

2025-2026 - Graduate Coursework - Applied Ethnomusicology, Autobiographic Playwrighting, Community Music as Communal Care for Thresholds

2026 – Ethics in Playback Theatre with Johnathan Fox

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Sicilian & Southern Italian Traditional Music Study

2012 - Rhythm is the Cure: Healing Drum and Dance of Southern Italy with Alessandra Belloni, Tuscany, Italy

2019-2021 - Rhythm is the Cure - weekly online Southern Italian drum and song classes with Alessandra Belloni and John LaBarbara

2019-2020 – Online drum lessons with Barbara Crescimanno

2022 – 6 weeks in Palermo Sicily with Barbara Crescimanno ; and meeting and learning from different musicians across the island – SudCantica, La Compania di Serenata; Giorgio Maltese

2023– Southern Italian drum and dance immersion with Andrea Piccioni & Livia Giafredda in Tuscany, IT.

2025 – Choros with Barbara Crescimanno in Palermo, Sicily

2025 - Ninfe with Barbara Crescimanno in Messina, Sicily

2025 – La Danza Pizzica Residency, Galatina, Apuglia, Italy

I continue with periodic lessons with Barbara

Anti-Oppression & Cultural Sensitivity Training

2000-2004 – Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology minor in Spanish and Communications. Worked in the Asian, Hispanic, Native American Center on campus, and coordinated multicultural arts and education on campus calendar. While a student, I volunteered for Miami Valley Council for Native Americans. Working with them was my real education. This began my dismantling whiteness journey.

2005-2008 – Program Coordinator at the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom Antioch College, under Executive Director Dr. Dana Patterson.

2008-2017 - Founded and co-facilitated women’s peer support circles, with trauma-informed, embodied, place-based and ritual arts-based healing space. Re-wilding became Somatics, became dismantling white supremacy and ancestral healing work.

2007, 2021, 2022 – Training: Undoing Racism – The People’s Institute at Antioch College; weekend workshop

2016, 2017, 2018:Be Present Inc. Training and Conference – Atlanta Georgia – 5- days immersions. Learning the Be Present Empowerment Model created by Lillie P. Allen, Be Present Inc, a national social justice organization rooted in Atlanta, GA. I participate in a monthly Be Present peer support group,

2016-Witnessing Whiteness book group for 1 year. (By Shelly Tochluk).

2020 - Disrupting our Whiteness for Song Leaders – 6-week course offered by Holistic Resistance

2021 - Disrupting our Whiteness for White Caucus Facilitators – 6-week course offered by Holistic Resistance

2023 – Being Trans Allies workshop by Anti-Racism Daily

2025 - 2026 - Graduate coursework - Indigenous Survivance, African Metaphysics, Accessing the Ancestral Body and Racialized Trauma.

‍ ‍Independent Contract Work-

2008-Present
Seasonal Educator at Heartbeat Learning Gardens 501 (c)3
Designing and leading workshop series on ecology and herbal medicine crafting in the folk tradition. (My family’s educational farm)

2019-2021
Educational Reviewer/Editor for West Chester Publishing Services
Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Pedagogy (CR-S)
We used the ‘CR-S rubric’ to evaluate educational materials across the country on how they include student-centered learning that affirms racial, linguistic and cultural identities (or not).

August 2021 – Aug 2022 -
Consultant and Co-facilitator for NAACP Sylva, NC - At the request of Dr. Dana Patterson, my previous supervisor at the Coretta Scott King Center at Antioch College, I was contracted as part of a small team to support relational healing between black and white members of the organization, culminating in a group retreat in August 2022.

2022-Present
Coordinator and Artistic Director for Heartbeat’s Annual Farm Festa and Cultural Arts Education Project

2022-2025
Alliance for the Earth501c3
Santa Fe, NM
Community Practice and Pilgrimage Coordinator and Facilitator; Decolonial and Anti-Oppression Consultant (Remote work from Ohio)
I coordinated virtual practice-group programming for a global community, the Gaia Mandala. I co-led monthly practice groups with global healing guided meditations. I organized and co-facilitated pilgrimage and retreats in New Mexico, Italy, and Greece. I wrote and edited monthly newsletters. I consulted with the leadership on decolonial and anti-oppression awareness, conflict transformation, and organizational systems change towards more collaborative leadership models.