Currently caring for my father as he enters hospice, I am also leaving my corporate job, and my home of 3 years. As my life iterates and I morf into my next best self, I will make multiple offers and requests.

I am currently seeking:

  1. Temporary housing in San Francisco, mostly a place to sleep, starting asap. Could be in exchange for my room in my condo in Albany (with swimming pool, hot tub, off-street parking, and cat).
  2. Support as I manage my father's hospice care - advice and care for me in particular.
  3. Support in sorting through the belongings I have accumulated with the goal of minimizing what I continue to carry with me.
In the next few months I will be looking for resources around: If you have any suggestions, resources, etc., please contact me. Text to 415-425-7797 is preferred.

Housing offer for 30-60 days! Available now!

Fully furnished and equipped room for rent in my condo

Here are the particulars:

On this page:

My identities

I am a Gender non-conforming (GNC), assigned-female-at-birth (afab), queer, Jewish, American-Israeli (and proud of neither), scientist, nonviolent person.

Communal Housing

My housing goals are to:

I am allergic to dogma, but I am human and inconsistent, so I want to live with like-minded people.

If you are considering inviting me to live with you here are some things you should know about me: I am responsible, self-aware, practice (not perfect at) nonviolent communication (NVC), and am clear about when and where I can be flexible and adaptable. I use my computer for media (no TV), and prefer to spend time with friends, attending social justice activities, political and scientific lectures, literary and live theatre events. As a result I look at my email intermittantly, and it is better to text or phone me at 415-425-7797 if you are trying to contact me. I live intentionally and am constantly improving how realistic I am about my bandwidth.

I lived in The Hearth (aka the coaching house) (sublet February 1 to June 30, 2018) and I also spent a brief time at Ludin's house. I am flexible with my move date since I own a condo. And would love to eplore the possibility of buying a hoem with my (already familiar) housemates.

In the future I want to live in a large communal household with children, where dinner is served every night (which I am willing to cook weekly, if needed). More on the characteristics of my "dream" home below. However, right now I live in reality.

Other activities I am engage in include:

More details about my vision for community living...

The household of my dreams is (not necessarily in this order):

and has (aka roses)...

Why so many people? you may ask... well, if you have a critical mass, an issue between 2 residents is just that. If you have 4 people in a house and 2 of them are struggling with their relationship, that sets the tone for every interacion in the house. If you are the one in conflict, if you have 8 people in the house, it is just one of your relationships, and there are 6 others for you to get along with, be supported by, and help you resolve the one conflict.

That said, I would rather live in a space where conflict is actively addressed and resolved. However, it seems that requires a "constant stream of exhaustive communication" (duh). I think this phrase was constructed as an insult. I find it very soothing, so for me it is a compliment (thank you, Eric!).

Deal breakers (aka thorns):

My rant on having to explain my identities

Somewhere between once a day and once a year there is a frequency in which I am willing to educate others on my oppression. Whether its about being queer, Jewish, a person of color, neurodivergent, or whatever other identity you are curious about. First ask permission to delve into identity and oppression. Don't assume I want to explain my oppression to you.

Oppression hurts!! Even if you don't realize it; actually, especially if you don't realize it. Recognize that the fifth time (that day) I hear the same comment is wounding. These are microagressions). Microagressions are the reason that many of our spaces are segregated, even though we might explicitly want more diversity. We need to make sure we are not being toxic to people with disabilities (yes, especially hidden ones), other religions, cultures, races, sexual identities, gender experiences, etc. It is difficult (otherwise, everyone would do it). We need to be more self-aware (see “own your stuff”). We need to be more inclusive, and it isn’t be easy.

And one word on inclusivity: the minute you mention a difference between you and another person in the group, especially if you hold any power at all, you have excluded them. The one exception is if you are celebrating the difference, and even then the field is fraught. Don't think that just because you said something nice that it isn't separating you. I cannot tell you how many times I was told I am articulate. I used the think it was a compliment. Now I recognize it for what it is: a truncated sentence. "You are so articulate [for a woman with curly hair; I expected you to be a mumbling fool]." Just keep it to yourself. I recommend this test: Would you say this to your straight-haired male friends?

Here are some clues:

If you want an easy read/listen that gets to the heart of racism, try How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. I recommend it for the awareness it brings to how subtle and pervasive racism is.

Many titles are available through Libby as audiobooks. Find those that are accessible to you. If one feels too uncomfortable, try another. I have reading lists for articles, as well as books. There is a lot of material out there.

I will stop here, but welcome the opportunity to engage and learn more about how we can make everyone feel included.

Good luck!

Personal Mission Statement from the early 2010s

I believe every person brings a unique and special gift to the world. My unique and special gift is to help others identify and use their unique and special gifts. Previously I empowered people by providing public assistance, as well as training them in computer and job search skills. Then I empowered leaders in volunteer organizations. Now I empower people at a large corporation to speak up, both by example and through encouragement. I want to live in a community that includes children so I can help them find their unique and special gifts.

I believe in mutual support and treading more lightly on the earth, and that together we will make the world a better place. I value scientific thinking and gaining knowledge where you need it, through informal education

Other things I am involved in (or would like to be involved in):

Leadership style

I am an intensive. For my leadership that means that I don't always achieve the best results directly. I generate lots of ideas, but I am not so good at discerning which ones are exceptional. I am even worse at getting people to help me implement them. So I have adopted a "back seat" leadership style: I identify good leaders, encourage them to lead, and then spew out ideas. Then they implement the good ones. Of course I am always available to do things, and especially to co-lead, but not to lead on my own, or to be the one person lead a larger group solo.

Vocational efforts

Working in Public Assistance, I was content going home every day, tired from a long day of work, and satisfied that I had helped someone. That was enough to motivate me to continue that line of work for a long time, despite being in an imperfect environment. I found I could effectively separate myself from all the hardship I heard about throughout the day, and just focus on the little I could do to improve my clients' lives. Knowing their names and something of their stories was an amazing experience.

I then got the opportunity to make a living wage in an organization that was starting to espouse speak up culture, and its twin sibling which I call "bringing yourself to work." That is when I seriously started to embrace corporate life. I am a learning machine, and this is valued and embraced in a rapidly evolving company.

I gain satifaction from supporting others. In most positions I do just that: from administrative assistance, through office management, of course training and customer service, into my current internal consulting work, I help people every day. My relationships with my supervisor and co-workers are a key factor in my wellbeing.

Currently I am using my analitical and training skills. I appreciate my coworkers, and my output is supporting my clients in handling their records. Previously I published technical documents for Gas Operations. I took 5 classes about Geographical Information Systems (GIS) at SF State University; while exploring possiblities of using my skills in developing and improving processes, and hoping to increase process safety, ethics and compliance, and improve our customers' experience. I hope to continue to grow in this capacity, with the goal of providing safe, reliable and affordable energy to my neighbors (and myself).

I have been hired into the UC system twice. Both times I submitted my resume, and then figured out who the hiring manager is. Once I went through the department HR representative (who have generally been forthcoming) and once I took the job description to someone listed as liaison to the posted position. I used the contact to identify the hiring manager. In both cases, my leg work paid off: the first position I held for 4 years, managing a $2.5M/year Breast Cancer research grant. The other was as an excellent challenge for my management skills, as a line manager at Cal, where I managed 14 staff members, and led the development of methods to cut operating costs in half. Consistent with UC culture, I managed by consensus; and true to my goal-oriented nature, got things done within the cumbersome UC bureaucracy.

I want to continue developing my skills in Lean/Six sigma, continuous improvement, convergent facilitation, and Performance Improvement, and use them to improve how organizations do business. I define Performance Improvement as dealing with the obstacles that arise from the people, the culture and the processes, and how they interact.

My interest in helping emancipated foster youth continues...

Supporting Foster Youth in building support networks as they emancipate

This started with ideas and concepts; with the hope that one day I will find the right platform to turn it into an implemented program.

Objective: To help emancipated foster youth build support communities.

As I have learned the hard way, a supportive community is not easy to establish. Young people need a support system, and foster youth don't have the benefit of strong support systems growing up, so their challenges are unique and considerable. Sometimes a support community evolves, but more often than not youth either have no one to turn to, or turn to people who have motives other than altruism in helping. Sometimes those motives are destructive.

My dream is to develop a program that helps emancipated foster youth form support systems that will serve the roll that extended family and family friends serve for those of us lucky enough to have them. I would like to engage "mainstream" or "middle class" people who are involved in different communities - former CASAs, job seekers, church and community organizations - in helping with individual tasks, with the hope that some of these relationships will evolve into lifelong connections. Also, I would like to work with youth to discover what their network consists of, so we can supplement it to cover all their needs.

I have developed a concept of what this might look like. I am trying to find partners to work through the plan and implementation of such a project (feel free to email me to discuss).

My Career So Far

MS in Biochemistry
Database Administrator for custom Administrative/Financial Database 1989-1994
Grant Administrator at UCSF: Breast Cancer SPORE 1994-1998
Clinical trial manager at Medical Device Startups 1998-2000
Programmer (Custom software): iKnowMed 2000-2001
Program Manager/Change Manager at UC Berkeley: Childhood Leukemia Study 2001-2003
Self Employed: Managing and coordinating construction projects (described below), assisting in hiring, web site maintenance 2003-2009
Classroom Software Trainer: Public Assistance, Medical Professionals, Job Seekers (underserved) 2009-2013
Public Assistance (Food stamps and County Medical Services Program) 2010-2011
Web Publisher, Process Development and Improvement 2013-2017
Records and Information Management Internal Consultant 2017-2019
Data Response Analyst 2019-2020
Program Manager for Electric Palantir Foundry efforts and Data Quality 2020-Present

Construction work: design coordination and floor plan consulting

Design coordination and floor plan consulting (construction). Design coordination and limited Project Management from beginning to end provided for:

Knitting instruction

Knitting is my one of my passions. I have a varied curriculum, or I can tailor a class to your needs.

Check out my friend Shoshana Phoenixx's web site.

Call 415.425.7797 or Email now

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