My day-day is IT QA and front-end UAT. Needless to say, refinement and matching client needs is something that I actively practice. Beyond my 9-5, you can often find me in the kitchen tinkering away with recipe experiments for vegan, gluten-free, and no-oil cookery; mostly baking. Other than that, I do peer support and advocacy for several different communities and intersectionalities. I try to do research and find methods of practical integration when I can. 

As I’ve gotten better at cooking and shared my experiments (mostly vegan, celiac, cardiac, and Crohns friendly) others have asked for my help with ingredient substitution and recipe conversion. Sometimes I’ll help them with nutritional balancing/rebalancing and meal planning. By sharing my recipes, or general knowledge, I’ve helped others maintain a level of culinary comfort around abrupt changes to their diets. To me, it does not matter what the diet is or restrictions, if I can help with creating recipes or crafting options, I’m happy to lend a hand. Limitations do not have to mean the loss of experiencing good food and drink or the freedom that comes with knowing you have options.

Outside of cooking, I’ve spend a good portion of my time in the peer support field working with people from a variety of backgrounds and lived experiences resulting in their marginalization by society for one reason or another. In particular, my focus has been on those in the trans community, sex workers, and those within the dissociative spectrum. While I have done advocacy for all of these, I have worked with the longest with dissociative issues. For many, it can be a difficult subject to talk about and a hard one to live with. Being highly marginalized and labeled as invisible disorders takes its toll and most try to just fit in; often forgoing treatment. Because of this workplaces, hospitals, and even working with professionals can become highly stressful environments. Hence the need for advocacy and greater cultural empathy around these issues.

These are just some of the things that I actively pursue. Despite the effort and struggle that comes with navigating them, I find myself enjoying and being inspired by the work. So if there is a way that I can help…let me know.