The Meadow DUMBO

I am a multidisciplinary artist, educator, published writer, and non-clinical art therapist from Chicago currently living in Brooklyn with my two teenage daughters. I’m interested in the ways we can combine embodied mindfulness and expressive arts to heal and empower individuals and communities while initiating environmental restoration and social transformation.

I opened The Meadow DUMBO because I noticed our present-day communities had very few opportunities and even fewer gathering spaces for creative expression, wellbeing, and healthy dialogue. I believe creativity is a birthright that plays an important role in our individual and collective health. The studio is a positive cultural contribution to Brooklyn. It aims to cultivate and celebrating our natural creative capacities, unique backgrounds and experiences, and cultivate human resilience as we navigate big changes.

I am a certified in Expressive Arts Therapy through an Indigenous lens after studying with Indigenous Wisdom keepers from the Cree/Anishinaabe and Metís Nations in Canada through the WHEAT Institute in Manitoba, Canada. I hold an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and a certificate in Contemplative Psychology from the Nalanda Institute at the Tibet House in New York City. For close to a decade, I trained in yoga and meditation instruction with renowned master Rodney Yee. I learned Council Circle facilitation and community-building practices through the Ojai Foundation with a circle of wise women from Israel and Palestine.

I have over twenty years experience as a classroom teacher at schools such as Packer Collegiate and Horace Mann in New York City and New Roads in Los Angeles. In addition, I’ve worked as a teacher consultant for the Illinois Writing Project and Art Centered Educators.

Over the past decade, I’ve led professional development workshops and trainings independently with New York City Department of Education, Stern School of Business at New York University, Barnard, Lululemon, Exhale to Inhale, Bumble, Vista Center, Montessori Day School of Brooklyn, Quartz, Brooklyn Public Library, Callison RTKL Architects, The Wing, Sayge Executive Coaching, City As School, Safe Passage Neuro-monitoring, Brooklyn Friends School, Bedford Stuyvesant Early Childhood Education Center, Stuyvesant Heights Montessori, The Red Hook Initiative, The Red Hook Arts Project, and numerous community members throughout Brooklyn.