For the past seven years, I have been a victim/survivor advocate. In this role, I support survivors of sexual & interpersonal violence to navigate a variety of systems. I utilize trauma-informed and resilience-informed care to be sure that survivors are met where they are at, and feel empowered to do what is best for them.

Gender equity is necessary both in the backcountry and in our daily lives. As an advocate, I see how violence impacts survivors. This violence impacts these individuals' entire lives, including their ability to get into sports such as climbing. As a survivor myself, I have found empowerment in the outdoors through backpacking, climbing, and mountaineering. I began to trust my own body, trust others, and be amazed at how resilient we survivors are. I knew that I was not alone. Through this experience, I became a certified rock climbing instructor and have created trauma-informed climbing spaces for survivors. I also teach the Climbing 1 course, assist in the Ice Climbing course, and have co-created a course entitled Risk, Resilience & Rock Climbing at Weber State University. This course explores the intersections of rock climbing, and women & gender studies. We ignite conversations about safety, trust, risk-taking, transcending fear, resiliency, and healthy community building. We investigate power and privilege in the climbing world and how to expand the field to be more inclusive, intersectional, and accessible to all people. 

I have supported and collaborated with survivors in my community-based artworks. In 2016, I created a curatorial project titled We Are Survivors. The show included 16 artists and provided educational programming through the School of Art and Art History as well as the Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies Department. I also initiated the large-scale performance To(get)her, which is an immersive artwork where women and femme-identified people protest gender-based violence and have a safe space to share their stories.

Although art, the outdoors, advocacy, and education may seem disconnected, there is a thread that continues to bind them together. That is gender equity and creating safe and brave spaces for survivors.