“We are born, first, within the great Divine Imaginary, the grove-ground of being where all the distinctiveness and vitality of life originates and comes into existence—a vision of continual unfolding; seeded in freedom to become, rooted in diverse particularity bursting forth through us in curious and complex living landscapes; manifested in bodies burgeoning with selfhood, longing to be expressed and actualized.”
~Liam Michael Hooper, MDiv
Photo by Beatriz Harry, Winston Salem Portrait Project
One way to offer a brief description of who I am—who I strive to be—in the world is to frame myself and my work through my understanding of the nature of my personal vocation: the labor of my beingness.
I am a Jewish-by-choice, closet mystic; theologian-educator; Torah geek; gender theorist; trans advocate-educator; public-speaker; author; relationality oriented, co-curator of courageous conversations; one-time podcaster, and sometime poet. I am also a person actively engaged in the slow process of surviving cancer, diagnosed in February, 2026.
This means that I now have the gift of aligning the labor of my being with labor to subsidize my meager (unplanned) retirement. I am available to engage with others as a participant co-creator of relational learning communities, small and large; a speaker, and workshop/seminar facilitator.
Of course, as is true for all of us, there is more to me than a few sentences convey.
I hope you will click some pages, read a few of my blogs. Or, better still, invite me to join you in some courageous relational circle-making, where we can grow together in the heart-labor of being human beings in community with others, learning with and from one another.
In addition to having worked for Wildacres Leadership Initiative before I retired, I am also a 2020-2022 Fellow of the William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations.
I was privileged to be one of many change-makers and grassroots leaders in our community who were invited to participate in the Winston-Salem Portrait Project.
On occasion, my spouse, Diana (and Dodi, our family terrier) travel with me—especially, when doing this work involves going to new and interesting places.
