Current contributors
Originally from Mexico, Gabriela Alor came to the States 15 years ago. Rooted in the belief that we are all connected, she invests in the power of culturally meaningful leadership to create equal opportunities for all. She is the mother of an amazing 6-year-old, who teaches her what unconditional love really is every day. As a mother, she truly believes that children can make the difference in this world—they are already born with everything that we are trying to pursue, including the values of freedom, love, and equality. Her guiding quotes: “El amor hace milagros” (Love makes miracles) and “Querer es poder”(Where there is a will there is a way).
Hace 15 años Gabriela Alor llegó a los Estados Unidos. Arraigada en la creencia de que todos estamos conectados, ella trabaja e invierte en el poder del liderazgo culturalmente significativo que crea igualdad de oportunidades para todos. Madre de un sorprendente niño de 6 años de edad, quien le ha enseñado día a día lo que significa y es el amor incondicional. Como madre, ella realmente cree que los niños pueden hacer la diferencia en este mundo—ellos ya han nacido con todo lo que estamos tratando de alcanzar, incluyendo los valores de la libertad, el amor y la igualdad. Sus frases que la guían: “El amor hace Milagros” y “Querer es poder”.
Jake Fawcett is a queer Midwesterner living in Seattle. He has been on staff at WSCADV for eight years and coordinates the Domestic Violence Fatality Review, despite being a generally upbeat guy. Jake is the father of four young boys, which gives him plenty of opportunity to transform the social construction of masculinity in between loads of laundry and peanut butter sandwiches.
Reed Forrester loves writing blog posts but hates writing bios.
Kendra Gritsch was born in Oregon and spent her formative years building forts in the woods and catching frogs. She moved to Bellingham, Washington for college where she found a new passion for social justice and women’s rights, which eventually lead her to the big city of Seattle to pursue a Master’s in Social Work at the University of Washington. Kendra has been at WSCADV since 2012 and works on the Domestic Violence Housing First project where she gets to merge her experience in domestic violence advocacy and homelessness prevention. Outside of work, Kendra can be found riding her bike, tending to her garden, snuggling with her pets, and pretending that she still lives in the country.
Leigh Nachman Hofheimer is a Jewish feminist, who is raising fabulous, fledgling, feminist twin daughters. She loves to tell stories, hear stories, and exchange stories with people all around her. For 17 years, Leigh has worked to end violence in the lives of women and children as a part of WSCADV staff. Because change is constant, she still believes that people can learn to share power and respect others. Some of her favorite activities, or wishes, are more time to quilt, learn to play the piano, walk more often and plant lots and lots of flowers.
Tyra Lindquist went to school to be a wildlife biologist. She learned a lot about observing animal behavior, which has come in handy in speculating about humans. As a 30 year veteran in the domestic violence movement, she’s old, and getting crabby about not solving violence against women and children. She’s going to give it a few more years before retiring to go work in the garden and travel around looking at birds.
Ankita Patel is an alumnus of Seattle University School of Law and has been with WSCADV since 2008. As an immigrant South Asian woman from Zambia, she tends to gravitate towards conversations about women’s rights, immigrant rights, human rights and global development. She also really enjoys experiencing different cultures (especially food, music and dance), and documenting her life through photography.
Ilene Stohl has been working to end violence against women since 1992 when she started working at a rape crisis center in Indiana. Ilene came to WSCADV in 2003 and still doesn’t know what she’ll do when she grows up. She balances her rage at the patriarchy with her love for her children and partner, the beautiful evergreen state, tennis, and her unwavering hope that we’re going to figure it all out one day.
Traci Mae Underwood is a born and raised Southerner, feminist, and mother, and currently works on WSCADV’s Economic Justice Project. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance which netted her nearly zero dollars in the real world, so she went and got a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Washington (because that’s where the bucks are!). For the past 15 years she has been a community organizer against poverty and an advocate for survivors of domestic violence. Some of Traci’s favorite things include: Political action, knitting, traveling, and watching her children become themselves.
Past contributors
Erin Doherty is a queer femme and feminist who has worn many hats in her time: childcare provider, sex educator, union organizer, and writing tutor, to name a few. Currently she is working on completing her BA in sociolinguistics at The Evergreen State College, and in the off-hours enjoys knitting, silly sci-fi shows, dogs, and nail polish experiments with her roommates.
Mette Earlywine is a determined optimist about this whole Domestic Violence mess. She really does believe that humans can let go of domination as the primary model of interaction and figure out how to share and play nicely. Meanwhile, she keeps herself busy frantic tending to her unruly children, WSCADV job duties, and fledgling marathon hobby.
After 30 years of working on issues of violence against women, Margaret Hobart regularly alternates between outrage at injustice, and awe at the human capacity for compassion and creativity. (It’s a tough seesaw, but someone has to ride it.) She has a PhD from the University of Washington in Political Science, and is a huge fan of liberal arts education as a way of learning to think critically about gender, race, sexuality, social organization, and civic consciousness. She has a reputation for laughing loudly, holding lots of opinions, and failing to keep a poker face in meetings.
Paola Morinigo landed in the beautiful Evergreen State 14 years ago all the way from Argentina. It is important to her to honor her roots and always include the lens of the Latina immigrant. She has a life-long commitment to social justice and anti-oppression work, and initiated her career in Reproductive Justice. As a result, Paola seeks to build bridges between the Reproductive Justice and Domestic Violence movements. When she’s not thinking about changing the world, she loves hiking, good food, and spending time with her partner and their 12-year-old cat Willow.
Can You Relate? 