How has this journey unfolded?
I’ve been drawn to social change work since childhood—writing, organizing, and creating spaces where people can process what’s happening and work together to create change.
My path has taken me from early anti-war organizing in the U.S., to studying and working in Israel, to more than a decade living and working alongside Palestinians and a global community of activists focused on human rights, grassroots organizing, and international advocacy.
In parallel, I’ve spent the last 15 years coaching executives and mission-driven leaders—both one-on-one and within large-scale programs—many of whom work in high-stress environments and navigate complex trauma.
Along the way, I experienced loss, trauma, violence, and burnout, and learned firsthand what sustainable recovery worked for me. I worked with dozens of healers, therapists, and coaches, and I now bring that learning into my work in a grounded, practical way—helping people create practices and systems that support their lives.
Focus areas: burnout recovery + prevention, grief support, nervous-system regulation, decision clarity, organization, creativity, community building.
Some of What I’ve learned
Burnout isn’t a personal failure — it’s a systems issue plus a nervous-system issue. Sustainable work requires pacing, recovery, and support structures, not just willpower.
Grief needs a place to go. When we create a space to collectively mourn, we are able to co-regulate and increase our sense of connection and sustainability.
Finding clarity is a supportive wellness practice. The ability to name what matters, set priorities, boundaries and choose next steps reduces overwhelm and increases resilience.
Creating systems that take into consideration limits to our humanity and to earth.
Creating small systems instead of big intentions. Simple routines (planning, communication agreements, recovery time, decision frameworks) that create stability when the world is unstable.
This is some of the foundation of how I coach and facilitate: compassionate, practical support for people who care deeply and want to keep going.
Ancestors
I carry both Western and Eastern European ancestry. On my father’s side, our family tradition holds a Kohanic lineage—connected to the priestly tradition and to a legacy of peacemaking associated with Aaron. Over generations, my father’s family moved through Eastern Europe, with roots in places including Kraków and Odessa, before immigrating to the United States in the early 1900s.
On my mother’s side, my ancestry includes English and German roots; my maternal line has been in the United States for many generations, with English Anglican clergy in the family history, who later became devout Quakers, and German Hessian mercenaries who fought for the British in revolutionary war.
These complex lineages—spiritual, political, and cultural—shape how I understand responsibility, repair, and belonging.
Childhood
(1986 - 2004)
I was born in New York City to a Jewish father from New York and a mother from California who converted to Judaism. They were an eclectic pair (and neurodivergent), and I grew up in a community of artists, interfaith and Indigenous leaders, and political activists in the Seattle area.
As a child I could be found leading rituals in the backyard, directing a plays, singing in the choir or organizing protests in the schoolyard. Words used to describe me was creative, communicative, sensitive and compassionate.
When 9/11 happened, I was 16 years old. I experienced my first grief ritual with my high school classmates and became a part of groups organizing large-scale protests as the U.S. launched into war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
At 18 years old, I experienced my first round of burnout.
College (2004 - 2009)
When I went to college, I became reinvigorated and I joined a student campaign team for John Kerry’s presidential race. After the loss, I focused more efforts locally and helped build a local advocacy coalition to oppose Boston University’s plans to construct a bio-weapons laboratory in Roxbury, a historic Black neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts.
I also interned in the Massachusetts State House with Representative Gloria Fox, and tried to help get a bill that regulated the laboratory passed in the state legislature.
The corruption, greed, and racism I witnessed in this work led to my second experience with burnout at 20.
Israel (2006 - 2010)
As a young adult, I wanted to know more about the U.S. relationship with Israel and Palestine.
I went on a Birthright trip in 2006 during the war in Lebanon.
I came back to the U.S. with more questions than answers.
Study did not suffice. So I dedicated time to learn from people living in Israel and Palestine over the course of the first eight of sixteen years I spent there.
While studying for my BA in Politics at Mount Holyoke College, I studied abroad at Tel Aviv University.
After graduation, I immigrated to Israel using the right of return law. This law provides Jewish people worldwide with citizenship in Israel, while denying Palestinian people who have lived there for generations with their basic rights and denying them the right to return.
I lived in Tel Aviv for four years, I learned Hebrew and worked as a freelance writer.
The more my literacy increased, the more
Palestine
(2010 - 2022)
Grassroots Organizing & Human Rights
After the 2008 war on Gaza, I started to deeply question Israel’s rhetoric.
I went to the village of Nabi Saleh, to witness the Israeli occupation in the occupied Palestinian territory, the West Bank. The violations to human rights that I witnessed, changed my life.
I began a long process of letting go of the Zionism I had grown up with, and that shift created big changes in relationships for me with friends, family, and institutions.
At the same time, I also built my new relationships that would last a lifetime.
By invitation of Palestinians involved in the popular struggle, I moved to the occupied Palestinian territory and spent a decade living and working alongside local communities.
Highlights from this period include:
Supporting bereaved Israeli and Palestinian family members at the Parents Circle–Families Forum.
Designing and implementing a child-rights advocacy project for World Vision, collaborating with artists Issa Freij and Ahed Izhiman to train frontline communities in photography and video for human rights documentation.
Joining the founding team at Grassroots Al-Quds and helping create Palestinian-led political tours, community stories, and maps of Jerusalem.
Leading the development and implementation of an executive leadership development program with Oxfam, supporting sixty NGO executives on campaigns, advocacy, and organizational development.
Supporting a Palestinian youth center in Gaza with Ayman Abu Rouk and Youth Without Borders.
Helping establish the first internship program for psychologists in Palestine with the Guidance Training and Counseling Center and Dr. Caesar Hakim.
Technology & Human Rights
Technology has been a major thread in my organizing and advocacy work across the U.S., Israel, and Palestine.
Some highlights include:
Piloting early SMS tools for organizing, TextMob and to be an early activist with IndyMedia.
Helping establish the Palestinian Observatory of Digital Rigths violations and supporting the growth of the first Palestinian digital rights organization, 7amleh, from a $250,000 annual budget to $1 million.
Collaborating on international campaigns that led to successful divestments from technology companies profiting from human rights violations.
I helped to establish formal mechanisms for documenting human rights abuses online in cooperation with
Produced research about AGI for the Existential Risk Observatory.
Contributed to Meta’s first Human Rights Report and the first human rights assessment in the social media sector.
Leading SEEN’s strategic development of citizen mobile-journalism and augmented reality designs to increase empathy and understanding.
Rest & Renewal (2022 - 2023)
After sixteen years of work in Palestine and Israel, I decided it was time to rest. I called it a Shabbatical—a sabbath stretched across a year, inspired by the Jewish practice of shmita, the seventh-year release.
I embraced this as a personal reset: stepping back from work, leadership, and media, and returning to a quieter rhythm—walking in nature, living simply, spending time with children, and letting go of who I thought I was supposed to be.
I realized how deeply nourishing spiritual practices were to me and how important wellness is for our work.
During this period I joined the Taproot Immersion Program, which helped me reconnect with Judaism as a part of that process and develop my skills in ritual leadership in 2022 - 2023. It was there that I studied with Rabbi Diane Elliot, Shulah Pesach Rabbi Irwin Keller, Rabbi Eli Herb and Adam Horowitz.
I also started to connect to the larger Jewish Renewal movement and earth-based Judaism, through Wilderness Torah and other initiatives and started to support local Jewish gatherings and holiday observance.
Rededication - Grief & Gratitude (2023 - 2025)
When my Shabbatical ended the week of October 7th, I responded to the violence in Israel and Palestine by opening a space for collective mourning. Over the course of the weeks and months following, I held space for hundreds of people in mourning alongside spiritual companions. This practice grew into the Social Change Sanctuary—an inter-spiritual space to help us move through grief in ways that support resilience and ongoing engagement.
To strengthen my ability to support others, I trained with Headspace and became a certified Health and Wellness Coach.
I also continued my spiritual studies and became ordained as a rabbinical student of of Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb and her Shomeret Shalom denomination. I continued my studies with eco-theologian Sara Jolena Walcott, and indigenous Diné elder Patricia Anne Davis. I also joined Thrive’s 2024 - 2025 cohort Rooting in the Sacred where I continue to practice today.
Realign (2025 - Present)
My story has been shaped by conflict, grief, and big questions, but also by what consistently helps: community, honest reflection, and habits that support steady change over time.
Today, I work with people who care deeply—and who need sustainable ways to keep going. I provide wellness coaching, facilitation and consulting to individuals, organizations and social enterprises that are dedicated to making the world a better place.
I help clients build clarity, resilience, and practical systems for making decisions, communicating well, and taking meaningful action without sacrificing their health.
I share my writing, audio recordings and reflections on spiritual practice through my newsletter Hodaya: A Companion Through Chaos & Creation and speak to audiences worldwide about spiritual activism and entrepreneurship.
If you’re looking for support that is compassionate, strategic, and real-world practical, I’d love to connect.
Book a exploratory session
Let’s get to know eachother and see where our mystery may lead.
