Author Archives: freerangeresearch

Endings, transitions and beginnings

This year has been one of heavy contradictions for me. It brought an end to 30 consecutive years of working in research in a structured 9-to-5 environment in offices or remotely for organizations, but it also brought so many unexpected opportunities and new beginnings. 

At the outset of the year, as my industry came under increasing threats of rapid cuts and dramatic changes, I was hungry to use my skills and life experiences in a different kind of way to affect those who were caught under the wheels of the rapid federal changes. A plan for a community conversation series seemed almost delivered to me through a series of flashbacks and revelations during an intense two-week period. Shortly afterward, I began developing partnerships and hosting these cathartic events. When I lost my job as a federal contractor amidst another flurry of cuts to contracts and personnel (the “April Fools RIFs to HHS), I was able to devote more time to the series.

These Community Conversation events provided a space for difficult conversations around the impact of the cuts and changes, as well as a way to learn and practice grounding techniques for managing anxiety, hold empowering discussions reenvisioning the support landscape for those affected, and share in soothing meditations. We left these spaces feeling heard, better connected, and more relaxed and restored.

Early in this journey, I was interviewed by another community advocate.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hJKpDYUbPt0?si=YZpizdPYm73jgwk-

By the end of November, I had conducted 15 Community Conversation events and three other career transition events, including a Careerchangeapalooza that proudly featured Career Change guru Rishan Mohammed of HiringCoach.ai. Some of the Community Conversations evolved into a youth-driven theme of Multigenerational Conversations about Mental Health and Wellness, and one event was more of a large-scale discussion forum with 10 breakout rooms. I led these events through partnerships with Transfiguration Parish, DC-AAPOR, AAPOR, and The Salt Sanctuary of MD, and as self-hosted events at local libraries and online. This work led to other opportunities I never would have imagined: co-leading a peer support group with a former FDA client, leading a weekly meditation series with the Salt Sanctuary and partnering with Brook Grove Retirement Community, where my daughter and I led weekly meditations, imagination sessions, and focus groups, and held countless conversations with residents and those in the rehab facility.

This was also a time for pro bono work, as I led and contributed to several qualitative studies in service of various partnerships and helped to prepare a statewide listening campaign on behalf of a consortium of local community advocate groups.

I felt deeply connected to my research and professional communities throughout this time. I joined MAFN, which turned out to be an amazingly supportive professional community, from monthly in-person networking events to online communities of practice. I joined the MRX PROs, with weekly sessions, discussion and camaraderie. I participated in AAPOR and DC-AAPOR events and attended the AAPOR conference with the help of colleagues. I learned more about the job-hunting landscape through the Insights Career Network. I met with countless peers in one-on-one networking sessions, learning about the passions and challenges of my colleagues and envisioning future collaborations. All of this happened against the backdrop of my unemployment. This morning marked the end of an era for me, as I attended my last mandatory unemployment session.

This period also led to something new and quite exciting! In September, I founded an LLC that is set to launch next week!

The coming year will be different. Some of these partnerships and Community Conversation events will continue, and a couple of new partnerships are on the horizon. The business will bloom and grow as a collective, and I’ll grow as a business owner through a business incubator program called Founders Rising!, and I’ll trade pro-bono work for paid consulting work. But this new year will be built on the foundation of a creative, supportive, challenging and transformational time unparalleled in my professional career. I’ve shared tears and laughs and intellectual excitement and so much more with my community members, colleagues, and friends and family this year, and more than anything, I feel so much gratitude to be at this particular point.

The COVID pandemic and lockdown brought another transformational period for so many of us, and we are still reckoning with its aftermath. The aftermath of this year will also linger. But may we continue to build on this new foundation to elevate each other through whatever challenges come our way in the future, stronger- as always, together!

Worldbuilding – or: What’s giving me hope?

It has been a minute since I checked in. In this very stressful time of change and transition, my experience has somewhat impossibly become one of hope and connection and new beginnings. Let me explain.

You know how, as a parent, caregiver or babysitter, when the home goes quiet you instinctively know you’ll need to find the child and see what kind of projects are underway? You tiptoe down the hallway to get a quiet peek into whatever room they are in, your heart in your chest with nervous apprehension. Well, take a breath. No need to feel nervous! But let me crack open my door enough to give you a peek at my current projects.

Watch your feet! My metaphorical legos are out. I’m still in a worldbuilding phase, but my focus has shifted a bit. Let me show you around this world that I am helping to shape.

Community support events. Community support activities had been my focus for the past several months, but recently I have pivoted in a few ways.

  • I’m no longer organizing independent events. I may organize something in the future, but for now I am focusing on my ongoing partnerships. These include AAPOR, DC-AAPOR, The Salt Sanctuary of MD and Transfiguration Parish.
  • I’ve discovered the WellFed community. If you haven’t, you should! They have fantastic events and activities to support the FiredFed community in a variety of ways.
  • Some of the community conversation events I’ve been hosting have shifted in topic. Most recently, we have focused on hosting multigenerational conversations about mental health and wellness. There is a big groundswell of support and interest in the topic, and I’m excited to see where it goes.
  • There is an upcoming forum for the AAPOR community to discuss the dramatic changes to the federal workforce and contracting environment. This conversation is deeply needed within our field, and I am really looking forward to this event!
  • The Salt Sanctuary of MD events include weekly online meditations and monthly conversations in the salt cave. Come for the salt cave and stay for the good conversation and collective peace!

Economic worldbuilding. I applied for my own LLC, and I’m preparing for its launch! The LLC will offer research and facilitation services and house a network for independent researchers and entrepreneurs. Building this network involves catching up and collaborating with some of my most favorite colleagues and imagining a way to get ahead of the rapidly changing research environment. I’m really excited to share with you what we are building! Soooonnnnnn

Large-scale community listening. This September, I helped kick off a huge community listening initiative that is a collaboration across AIM, PATH and the MD Just Power Alliance! During this kickoff, over 50 organizations pledged to conduct listening sessions with over 3500 people across the state of MD, developing a unified agenda that reflects the collective struggles and needs of many people across the state!

Sensitive Topics Initiative. AAPOR’s Qualpor group has a Sensitive Topics Initiative that has kept me busy in 2025! In May, we hosted a session and individual presentations related to distress protocols. I was able to combine a few of these together to present at the recent DC-AAPOR conference. This presentation included a deep dive into handling disclosures related to self-harm in research interview situations. And we have a few very useful projects underway, including practical guidance for when and how to develop a distress protocol.

Family business. One big change in 2025 has been involving my kids in the work that I do. As a working parent, it can be very difficult to be present in work and in family life, and one or both sometimes feel neglected. 2025 was the first year that I was able to collaborate with one of my kids on a variety of projects. She is unlikely to follow in my footsteps, but to be able to spend time together in this kind of way is a special treat for someone whose career has been such an important part of my life.

What else is giving me hope? I always look to the Daily Show, Josh Johnson, spiritual guidance from Iyanla Vanzant and the Nap Ministry and so many other voices. And then there was this interview, that inspired me so deeply!

Self-care. I am learning that self-care comes in many forms. It comes from making progress in small but effective ways on things that matter. It comes from knowing what matters to me and living into my values. It comes from building something in the face of an uncertain future. It comes from making and engaging with art and creative pursuits. It comes from connecting to community. It comes from the delightful messiness of community in practice. It comes from finding and embracing love all around me; recognizing the sources of support and the ways in which we instinctively care for each other and ourselves. It comes from gratitude for the people who have stepped into my life in unexpected, but wonderful ways.

In these times of stress, we somehow begin to see the best in each other. The stress is big, but the sources of hope are many. I wish that you feel supported, seen, recognized, purposeful, powerful and empowered, recognized, connected, loved, restored, and hopeful, and I hope that you have the audacity to dream, build and create at a time when so many external forces are trying to box you in. I wish you an unboxing. I wish you perspective.

And I will be in touch as more of the world I am building becomes ready for the light of day.

A dispatch from the field of life

Well, dear reader, I haven’t been blogging much lately, but I do have updates to share! (Look at me invoking my best Bridgerton voice)

I was recently interviewed for the Passion in Motion podcast. I’m really grateful to Mutsa Makufa for the great conversation, and I’m proud to share it with you. Mutsa is a talented interviewer with several engaging conversations around the massive federal shifts and resulting uncertainty on his channel.

It’s been a busy set of months with continually unfolding change and uncertainty. So many of us were caught under the wheels of change with massive federal cuts that continue to affect current and former federal employees and contractors in unprecedented ways. Please, let’s stick together. We are stronger in numbers, and so many of us are going through the same things. We have old structures to mourn and new structures to build, together.

I have a few upcoming events on my eventbrite page that I’m excited about! There are book events (both online and in-person) for people in career transitions. The book events have been nicknamed the ‘no wrong book’ book discussions because any kind of book is fair game. We may be reading skill-building books, other nonfiction books, books that offer comfort in myriad ways, or books for escape- and I greedily want to hear about all of them! Bring your stack and give us a tour. See what others are reading.

I also have two Community Healing Conversations planned; one online and one in-person. These are my favorite events because they offer a chance to listen and be heard, build collective peace and resilience, and find better ways to support each other during these times. These conversations inspire and fortify, and they feed my next steps as a community builder. Message me for details about the next in-person Community Healing Conversation in the DC area (it’s not on Eventbrite).

And there is an upcoming Careerchangeapalooza event through DC-AAPOR. I’m really excited about this event, because it grew directly out of a conversation during a Community Healing Conversation about how career support inherently must look different during this time.

All of these events rethink community support and career support to better accommodate our changing times. There are others in the queue through various collaborations. I’m excited to share them as they go live! Please come join us and please help spread the word! This is a space where everyone is welcome. Come as you are and leave feeling better connected and empowered!

On another front, I am in the early stages of building this community building effort and more (think: research consulting and community storytelling) into a small business. This is very new territory for me, and there is a lot to learn and to figure out. I am very open to advice and very grateful to my network for the advice I’ve already received. It’s exciting, but it’s also overwhelming. I’m wrestling with my best and worst selves to creatively envision a box of wonders that fit together nicely under one umbrella and bring my ideas into fruition through some labyrinthine administrative tedium. It’s not how I envisioned my summer; oh, how I want to be jumping into a cold lake on a hot, sunny day and justtttttt floating. But it’s oddly incredibly fulfilling. I want to hear about your experiences building something! What’s your business building story? Pull up a bean bag and join me in the comments!

Where the magic happens

The key to getting things done is doing them on your own terms.

This is a motto of mine; words I live by. A commute can be a pain, but what if I left a little earlier, took the scenic route, drank some good coffee and listened to a good book on the way? Dishes can be a pia, but with music? What if I focus on the bubbles?

As a researcher, I am often motivated by the power of noticing. As a moderator, this means providing space for the quietest voices to blossom. As an analyst, this means taking the time and care to represent all of the voices, not just the loudest or most eloquent.

I’ve often taken pride in my invisibility as a facilitator. I feel like I’ve done my job when I’m barely noticed, but the tone is set, the participants are at ease and the conversation stays on track through the subtlest of prompts and cues.

Today I’m kayaking. I enjoy racing through the water, but when I stop, I see birds hidden in tall grass, fish jumping, and the almost magical pops of light reflecting on water and trees.

My community work has also followed this model; amplifying quiet voices, endorsing those who seem tentative but I know to be insightful. Noticing.

This is my way of working, living and interacting in the world, and this is what drives me to do the work I’m doing now.

I have a voice that I have never hesitated to use. But I’ve learned that the world comes alive around me when I choose to observe. I trust that the same voice I use to advocate for others is well practiced and fully available when I need it, and with that trust I can fade back.

I’m in a transformative moment. I’m deciding what I want to build and that requires repeatedly doubling back to my principles. What do I stand for? What do I provide as naturally as I breathe or paddle? Who am I without institutional backing, when I’m free to create?

There is a large exodus in my field; people who have lost jobs and are beginning consultancies. For some, the path may feel more clear than for others. How can we support each other better? Connect more? Collaborate more? Grow stronger together? Are we all adrift? Could we paddle together?

When I finished my paddle today, I pulled onto shore and a park employee greeted me. I saw poop on both sides of the kayak and tried to point it out to her. She didn’t see me or hear me. She appeared to have already decided my words didn’t merit her attention. ‘Watch where you step!” I shouted, after a few attempts, and then watched her croc’d foot come down in a large pile of poop. In this world of paddlers, where we all sit under the same blanket of sky and listen to the sounds of birds that live freely amongst and between us, I choose to listen, to observe, to hear, to find pockets of magic and to step in poop as little as possible.

What is the real product here?

I was recently talking with a friend about my community conversation series. She told me that the real value in the sessions was in the data produced. I was shocked! Do community conversations produce data?

I have to say; this ruffled my feathers. The intention behind the session was always one of self expression, forming or reinforcing connections between people, fostering healing and resilience, and building community. If they were intended for data collection, I would have instituted a consent process and considered inviting ethical review. Data collection has a very different connotation in my field, and these are community based advocacy, not focus groups!

But I’ve been ruminating further on her words. Coming out of these sessions, there’s a clearer sense of what people are experiencing, how they are coping and what kinds of resources would be helpful to better support them at this time. And honestly, for any group that knows that some members are suffering, these are important outputs.

Are they data? No. Insights? No. Traditionally, they are none of these things. But they do provide valuable and necessary information that can be built upon to build better support systems and structures.

I’ve heard anecdotally from many groups of people affected by the sweeping government changes that they want to know what’s going on with their members and how to support them. I honestly believe that these community conversations are the answer to that; allowing both an opportunity to support people and an opportunity to explore a path forward through the chaos.

The value is on both one-off sessions and in repeated sessions within the same community. My mission is to build them in such a way that groups and people can benefit. It’s a slow process, as I figure out how to meet people where they are, and I’m always open to advice or interest!

Interesting in joining a session or getting involved?

Here is the mailing list:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfrIlrlCJzm5E4ahoR_JOh6E-KaB1nbGyJ2SmdQqKL99JHrOQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=114493619372705360657

Here is the next online session:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1382445414449?aff=oddtdtcreator

Let’s be real for a moment.

Let me be really honest with you.

This community conversation effort is one of the most fulfilling projects I’ve ever been involved with. I believe in the groups and find them cathartic. The support I’ve received and enthusiasm for the effort blows me away, and I’ve had amazing conversations with people in my network about how to build them. I’m excited about the possibility of adding additional activities and opportunities to connect with art and nature and even do retreats!

But I have one big, perpetual challenge in bringing them to fruition.

For whatever reason, people heartily cheer from the sidelines and then don’t register for the events. People don’t seem to believe that these sessions are for them.

Some people are intimidated by the weight of the subject. But they haven’t seen the lightness that people walk out of these rooms with. Ultimately, the events feel like a wellness activity that leaves people smiling, laughing, relaxed, connected and inspired. We’re countering the weight, not basking in it.

Some people don’t want to talk about what they’ve been through. I get that. But it’s not school. You’re welcome to come and listen!

Some people care a lot, but aren’t directly affected. To these people I say we still need problem solvers, workers, concern and support.

And what is there to gain from all of this?


1) First, wellness. Skill-building. As a caregiver, I work regularly with anxiety and grounding techniques that have been transformative. I want to share what I’ve learned, because we are continually dealt blows. I want us to be ready for them as they come.


2) Connection to community. Community is bigger than us. It spreads the load on our shoulders across multiple backs. It allows us to care and be cared for.


3) A sense of where we are and how we can survive and even thrive in this fast-changing environment. The occupational and political landscape today is unique, and we will need to find new ways to handle it. If we can dream it, we can build it!

I don’t know, ultimately, whether this idea will grow the way I dream. But I’d like to believe that we can build community networks to support each other, grow in innovative ways, stay ready, heal together, and be inspired together by our common passions for learning, for art, for a natural world that is bigger than us, and for a good common humanity that still exists beneath the surface of this plastic, unfeeling society.

I want to believe that we can build something beautiful together!

There are two upcoming events, one in-person and one online. We’re working on more, different types of events, focusing on individual topics, sharing about books, making art together, being in nature together and more.

In-person event:
Community Conversation: Finding our Footing in this Uncertain Time https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-conversation-finding-our-footing-in-this-uncertain-time-tickets-1363624811519?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=wsa&aff=ebdsshwebmobile

Online event:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/online-community-conversation-finding-our-footing-in-this-uncertain-time-tickets-1382445414449?aff=oddtdtcreator

Mailing list:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfrIlrlCJzm5E4ahoR_JOh6E-KaB1nbGyJ2SmdQqKL99JHrOQ/viewform?usp=header


Please, come join us. You’re welcome! Come as you are. Bring your baggage. Lighten your load. Find connection and inspiration. Believe in us.

Navigating Career Changes from the Inside Out

Years ago on this blog, I wrote about approaching career changes from the inside out. I had accomplished the biggest career change of my life that way, by following my passions with my books, talks and extra research sessions and then blogging about them here.

Last week at the annual AAPOR conference in St Louis, an attendee in a session about Navigating Career Change asked about feeling unsatisfied with their work. This is a common motivation for switching jobs, but I chimed in from the audience as a voice of caution.

“I think about it like an unscratched itch,” I advised. “Maybe there is some part of you that your work life isn’t satisfying. But this is a horrible time to switch jobs so I advise you instead to find other ways to scratch that itch. You may still decide you’re ready for a change, but if, for example, you decide that you really do need your job to offer more space for creativity, you now have recent experiences to speak to as examples of you pursuing your creative endeavors.”

We expect our jobs to be our calling, our everything. And we give them everything. But we are so many things, and we need to exist beyond our work.

I’m at another point of career change. After nearly 30 years of working in my career- with the longest break being 3 weeks of maternity leave, I’ve lost my job as a government contractor as part of the deep federal cuts. I could look directly for another position, but I want to take my time with it. We only live once, and I want to take inventory of all of my itches before deciding how to scratch.

I want to build out this Community Conversations initiative, but I want to be thoughtful about it. I’m not trying to recreate what others have done, so much as build something new that fits our current needs. This requires intuition, reflection, patience, resilience, and determination. It means that some days are among the most fulfilling of my life, hosting cathartic community sessions or having really inspiring conversations with friends and colleagues, and some days I wonder why I’m adrift instead of staying on the career path.

This initiative was founded from the inside out, reflecting 

  1. my facilitation skills that I’ve learned through years of moderating, facilitating and community work, 
  2. my passion for building mental health that was cultivated through voices like Iyanla Vanzant, Pema Chodron, Rachel Cargle and the Nap Ministry,
  3. my profound interest in community based participatory research and the principles that guide it, and
  4. my love of strategic conversations, brainstorming and forming new ways to approach problems.

Forming an initiative from the inside out means that guiding our next steps is a continual process of self reflection. This means that a day spent at one of my favorite art galleries, taking pictures that I may able to use for an exhibit of my own one day, getting lost in the woods on its campus and finding new ways to engage with my surroundings is just as important as a day spent documenting the plan for the initiative, including the financial and communication aspects.

I always imagined my life in chapters, with a later chapter as a more wholeheartedly creative era. And I love the creativity I’m feeling now! But a change so dramatic as this requires some careful stewardship and navigation.

I’m not really sure where any of this is headed, but I’m confident that just as when I recreated my life before, these steps will lead me in the right direction. Because I’m scratching my itches!

Have you navigated big changes like this? Do you have unscratched itches? Do you have any advice or resources to offer? Please comment! Let’s continue the conversation.

Picture taken by me, in the grounds of the Glenstone Museum in Potomac, MD 5/22/2025

The Lost Value of Community

What role does community play in your life? Maybe you have a circle of friends or a supportive family. You may have a religious or professional community that is supportive, nurturing or helpful. Maybe your neighborhood nurtures strong ties, or a hobby group of yours feels like ‘your people.’ These networks can be invaluable in our lives, and yet they are rarely held up for the value they offer.

In the recent turmoil, with the uncertainty around government work and government contracting, my own networks began to take on a different character. My friends began sharing memes about the uncertainty and rapidly unfolding events and laughing together as we also supported each other through dramatic changes in our own workplaces. My LinkedIn network began more personable and supportive, and I began to follow updates to keep track of what was happening to my current and former colleagues.

In our local networks, we persistently asked, ‘what can we do differently to address the rapidly changing needs of the people in our network?’

This, my friends, is the core purpose of the Community Conversation series I’ve been building. In each session, participants have an opportunity to talk about the changes afoot, interspersed with grounding exercises that progressively relax us and help us practice skills for managing acute anxiety and distress. Once we are calmer, and we have had our say, and we have a better sense of what people are experiencing, we brainstorm together about how we can support each other differently at this time, ideally in ways that empower people in our networks that may feel as though they’ve had something stripped away.

In one professional group, this meant rethinking professional support in a more horizontal way. What if we formed learning communities for those who want to practice, learn or teach R or Python? What if we created networks for pairing mentors, build networks of lobbyists to speak on behalf of our field, or offer resume review from peer to peer? We spoke about how we embody the knowledge, skills and institutional history of our field, and it is important for us to remember that in our approaches to self and community care. We spoke about having potlucks and cooking for each other instead of just attending costly happy hours. The community conversation series is about collective healing and protecting that which we believe in- in new and exciting ways.

In one church group, the support looks differently. We learn more about each other as we express our experiences and fears, build some collective peace, and learn about what our community members need and have to offer in very different ways. We represent a mix of professions and backgrounds, and we find new ways to protect and support the church family.

These conversations blow my mind, because they involve a deeper level of connection than I have previously seen in these networks. They help people feel valued, empowered, supported, connected and ready for whatever comes their way. People arrive at the groups with the strong emotions they have been carrying on their own shoulders and leaving smiling, laughing and relaxed. This is, at its core, what it means to restore people.

And yet, building these networks further will require funding, volunteer labor or institutional help. The groups themselves need to remain free or close to it. But there are expenses; a zoom account, physical meeting spaces, food for meetings, possibly technological support, etc. Stay tuned in the near future for opportunities to assist.

In the meantime, I encourage you to join our mailing list, to hear about upcoming events and activities or to get involved. We are also available to answer any questions you may have about the initiative.

join our mailing list: https://forms.gle/usQPq46moTo3hmu58

attend a virtual event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-conversation-finding-our-footing-in-this-uncertain-time-tickets-1322116238259?aff=oddtdtcreator

You may see the need for these groups but not your place within them. I want you to know that there is room for everyone to come as you are. Experience some peace, and connect more deeply with others in your community. Together we can weather whatever comes our way. Alone, we may just be blown away in the breeze.

Something to believe in

At the beginning of Life of Pi, the main character says he has a story to make you believe in God. Does he? I suppose that depends on your belief system, but the story made for a great book and a gorgeous movie.

I am not someone who believed that things happen for a reason. It might have been true, but the potential truth of it offered no comfort to me. But this year has shaken my doubt. Let me tell you my story.

You know me as a researcher, fundamentally and to my core. I’ve been working in research since 1996, and it has been an adventure, a challenge, and a great love. I’ve had the pleasure of working on fMRI research in its early days, working in Neuropsychology departments at fantastic hospitals, getting to know the nonprofit space, doing research on and in the global and academic Physics and Astronomy communities, doing Usability studies in people’s homes and using eye tracking tools, working across a number of languages on study recruitment materials, working in HIV prevention and treatment, evaluating health communications materials and working with communities to cocreate research studies that serve them.

Oh, the places research can take you! The interest work! The amazing people I’ve met along the way!

This year, things began to change pretty dramatically for the research community around me. We’ve been seeing respected professionals and institutional studies let go and dismissed on a massive scale.

We all want to help support each other and the field in some way, but we’re being stripped of our collective voice. I began to obsess over what I could uniquely offer to help. For a solid week, the topic was omnipresent for me. I thought immediately of the community conversations I’ve led occasionally with my church community. But what could these conversations look like? The answer came in flashes from every corner of my memory. Things strung together in a way I never could have imagined prior.

I’m hearing about the stress and distress we’re suffering through, and I thought of the grounding activities I’ve honed with someone very close to me who’s been battling severe anxiety and depression. I thought of the community gatherings that Iyanla Vanzant used to host on Saturday mornings and the grounding exercises she taught. I thought of my love of meditation and the methods that have been useful to me. I thought of the Nap Ministry and the idea of restoring people to their optimum humanity. I thought of Rachel Cargle and Adrienne Marie Brown and their teaching about the importance of imagination and play.

I wanted to use my qualitative research skills, experience with facilitation, and these principles to create something new, grounded in principles of Community Based Participatory Research.

The goal is to create a space for people to listen and be heard, to heal and to learn healing skills, to dream of a different future and to understand what the community needs and how the community can best support each other. The sessions can be singular for a group or they can become a community building and nurturing series for that group.

I began collecting resources and developed a resource sheet for participants, and I developed a discussion guide that asked few questions and allowed mostly for listening, discussion, and progressive relaxation. These resources are intended to be flexible enough to work with any group.

The next step was to find communities who were interested. To date, I have conducted groups with my church community and a local professional group. The groups blew my mind. People entered with strong emotions, listened and supported each other, relaxed to the point of smiling and laughing and spoke about supporting each other and building community. The groups were very different from each other, each becoming what it needed to be. One group opted to make this into a series, with a second session planned for later this month. The other left me with a full page of ideaa that our professional councils can bring to fruition.

As the communities around me are increasingly affected, I’ve wanted to focus on expanding- but it’s been difficult to balance with a full time, intense job. Well, dear readers, after seeing the last of my clients RIF’d last week I was laid off this week. For me, this was a gift, because this community conversation series is my passion and my purpose.

In the coming weeks, I’m going to focus on ways to find more groups to facilitate, online and in-person. I’m working on designs as well, to raise funds for the project in some kind of way.

How can you help? If you’re interested, you’re welcome. I need support in locating and planning groups, developing a funding strategy and a plan for the merch. Let’s work together to build community, restore peace and purpose, and support and listen to each other.

Thank you for listening ❤️

“All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
is Change.

God
is Change.”


Octavia E. Butler

Call for Abstracts for 11th Annual International Conference on Stigma

I am excited to share the call for abstracts for a very special conference that bridges community members, practitioners and researchers. This year’s conference will be online and spread over the course of a week. It brings a cathartic opportunity for community members to share their experiences and a unique opportunity for researchers to engage directly with community members and practitioners about their work.

 

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

11th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STIGMA

Conference Theme: “Faces of Stigma”

 

Virtually Hosted by Howard University Monday, November 16, 2020 – Friday, November 20, 2020 (9 AM– 4 PM EST)

Deadline for Submission: Friday, September 18, 2020 by 5:00pm (EST)

 

The goals of this virtual conference are to increase awareness of the stigma of HIV and other health conditions and to explore interventions to eradicate this stigma. The conference also serves to educate healthcare providers and the general public about stigma as both a human rights violation and a major barrier to prevention and treatment of illnesses. We are looking for original research that addresses HIV or other mental or physical health-related stigma to be presented as a VIRTUAL POSTER during the conference virtual poster session. Abstracts that focus on the effects of intersectional stigma, or how different layers of stigma (e.g., race, poverty, mental health) affect individuals or communities of people are particularly encouraged. The Best Scientific Abstract Award recipient and the second-place scientific abstract will have the opportunity to provide a BRIEF VIRTUAL PRESENTATION of their work on November 19, 2020 in addition to their participation in the virtual poster session held throughout the week of the conference. Monetary prizes will be given for the top three scientific abstracts. The Best Scientific Abstract Award recipient will receive a $500 prize, the second-place scientific abstract will receive a $200 prize, and the third-place scientific abstract will receive a $100 prize.

Abstract Guidelines:  Submit an abstract, with a maximum of 300 words, to Victoria Hoverman at vicki.hoverman@gmail.com and Shirin Sultana at ssultana@brockport.edu, by 5:00pm (EST) on Friday, September 18, 2020.  Please include the full name, position/job title, affiliation and email address of each contributing author at the top of the page along with the abstract title.  Author information and the abstract title are not included in the 300-word count.  First author or another presenter must register for the conference if the abstract is accepted.  The first author (or another presenter) of the winning abstracts must virtually attend the conference to receive the prizes.  Students are welcome to submit abstracts and attend the conference!

Notifications will be sent by October 16, 2020.  These are virtual poster presentations only, with the exception of the Best Scientific Abstract Award winner and the second-place scientific abstract winner, which are also brief virtual oral presentations.

For questions about abstracts, contact Victoria Hoverman at vicki.hoverman@gmail.com and Shirin Sultana at ssultana@brockport.edu.  For general questions about the conference contact Patricia Houston at phouston@howard.edu.