Having moved to Humboldt from San Francisco, in 1997, as a College English Professor, while raising a family, I returned to graduate school for my Master’s degree, in Visual Disabilities, and became a Vision Rehabilitation Therapist. I was part of a California cohort meeting the needs of the historically large number of Baby Boomers aging and eligible for Title 7, Older Individuals who Area Blind & Visually Impaired grant-funded services managed by the California Department of Rehabilitation. Since elders had co-morbidities impacting their independence, we addressed other needs for which we sought and managed grant funding. Humboldt Area Foundation & Wild Rivers Community Foundation (HAF+WRCF), Bertha Russ Lytel Foundation, the McLean Foundation, and individual donors helped meet some of those needs.

After jointly serving the community with health and social providers, in Humboldt and Del Norte counties and on overlapping and adjacent Tribal lands, I implemented grants and projects for organizations long on responsibilities and short on time—learning about transportation, infrastructure, governmental, and service systems along the way. During early COVID, I joined HAF+WRCF’s Community Response Team as a consultant; I stayed for wildfire response grantmaking and then joined HAF+WRCF as a Senior Program Officer.