What is one word that describes you perfectly?

Human.

What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?

I try to be careful when I give advice to others, because I don’t want to impose my experiences on them and make them feel constrained or restricted by what I have lived and overcome. This advice is for whoever wants it and benefits from it and can mean whatever you want it to mean. Life can be a long, winding journey through mountains of struggles, rivers of complicated feelings and forests of people that love you and don’t love you where the weather inside your head and heart will vary from beautiful, sunny and warm to dreary, wet, and cold. What matters is that, wherever you find yourself, you stop to breathe in air and to admire your surroundings, for they are your life; a beautiful conglomeration of experiences that everybody and nobody will have. Follow your heart and you will find yourself, always, in the perfect place in the perfect moment.

If you could have one super power what would it be?

I’m not sure that, if given the choice, I would choose to have a superpower. I am in love with the multitude of varying experiences, feelings, sensations that being a human being affords me and I feel no need or desire to go beyond them. But– if I had to choose, I would choose to become any living creature that I wanted in that moment. What joy it would bring me to be a tree, a bird, a tiger, or a whale for a few moments.

How do you measure success?

I try not to. I believe that “success” is a false narrative imposed on us by structures and systems of power and oppression. On the other hand, I also recognize the significance of “success” in our society and for people navigating and existing in these structures and systems. Thus, I would be remiss if I did not mention that ideas of “success” have played a major role in my life as a working-class and queer-identifying woman and survivor of domestic abuse, who has overcome significant barriers to becoming college educated and a “professional.” “Success” is very personal; it is what we think it is, and sometimes, it can be what we don’t think it is. My idea of “success” that I have created for myself is how much I am contributing to meaningful structural and systemic change and empowerment for those experiencing oppression in my work, in my personal life, in myself, and in my community.

I am empowered by ­­­­_________?

My forest of loved ones– clients, colleagues, friends, and family– who give me their kind words, who know me, who see me, who share their lives and power with me, who inspire me, who teach me, and who love me, are those that empower me.

Optional: What is your occupation?

Attorney, Legal Services, Immigration Law.