I am a registered descendent of the Bering Straits Native Corporation—specifically the Inupiaq of the Seward Penninsula—Dutch settlers, and Irish/British Catholics. I am also the granddaughter and grandniece of federal Indian boarding school survivors, raised on Duwamish lands in the anti-feminist, radical traditionalist Catholic community of Seattle.

I completed my Associate of Arts Degree at North Seattle Community College, and attained my Bachelor of Arts degree as a liberal studies major at Seattle University. After spending some time working as a facilities manager, barista, and eventually a community mediator, I attended graduate school on Lenape lands at Villanova University, where I received my doctorate from the Department of Theology and Religious Studies.​​ I am grateful for the curves of this journey which have formed my identity. My path, and the various identities and histories of my family, informs all the work that I do. 

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As I begin to reconnect with my Inupiaq kin in the Seward Peninsula, I hold my work accountable to intergenerational healing for myself, my parents and grandparents, my daughter, and those who follow her. ​​