As a two spirit Trans person who has immigrated twice in my life, I come to AMRF having lived many lives. I have worked as a freight train conductor, a farmer, a homeless service provider, a mediator and a non profit director. I am now a city commissioner, an artist, musician, and a proud parent to two cats and a dog.
After the experience of being unhoused as a young trans person, I was motivated to begin working in the shelter system, advocating for greater trans inclusion and safety. This quickly led me to become the inaugural director of Our Trans Home- the first transitional housing program for Trans and Gender Non-Conforming people in San Francisco. I then opened one of the first TGNC specific shelters in the country, named after a two spirit youth I supported who passed away during the pandemic: “The Taimon Booton Navigation Center.” Taimon’s loss made me passionate about working at the intersections of race, gender, age-specific services, substance use and crisis response. Now, as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Homelessness Oversight Commission, I bring this passion to support BIPOC, LGBT, formerly incarcerated people, youth and elders.
I am endlessly grateful to be a part of the team at AMRF — a foundation that is pushing the envelope to provide equitable trust based support to community leaders. It is a dream come true to be able to provide the support that I would have benefitted from during my hardest times to our grantees. I hope to use my experience to uplift the leaders who provide care, healing and belonging to our most marginalized communities.