hello

I—Luna (she/they)—am a white settler living on unceded Anishinaabe territories of Odawa, Bodéwadmiké (Potawatomi), and Meškwahki·aša·hina (Fox) people also known as Southern Michigan. I am an abolitionist, a geek, a creative, and an aquarius sun & cancer moon. I like to snuggle up on the couch to watch birds, play with dogs, and watch or read sci-fi/fantasy + spec fic. I live with depression and chronic pain. I live for my friends (canine + human), long hikes, the sun shining through the trees during the golden hour, the moon, and better worlds.

experience

I am and always will be a community organizer. I have been engaged in community organizing related to intersecting struggles of liberation and alternatives to criminalization since 2012. The most valuable knowledge and experience of my life has come from community organizers, struggling toward social transformation with care and imagination. From 2023 - 2024 I have had the honor to work for Care-Based Safety, an unarmed, non-police crisis response and crisis prevention program in Michigan.

In terms of conflict, I've been writing publicly about and counseling folks about conflict since 2018, but began studying Transformative Justice (TJ) around 2013 through the Creative Interventions Toolkit (Mimi Kim) and resources provided by Generation 5, INCITE!, Mariame Kaba, and Mia Mingus. TJ was developed from the everyday practices that criminalized communities, largely Black, Indigenous, and undocumented, have relied on for generations. Through that study, I began to cultivate, experiment, and engage in everyday practice of conflict transformation and abolitionism. In 2016 I went to graduate school, where I gained additional practices and insight into conflict analysis.

Training

Master of Social Work (2024)

University of Michigan School of Social Work

Therapeutic practice, individual, family, and group
Assessment
Case planning
Clinical and social theory

Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution (2018)

Wayne State University

Conflict analysis
Restorative practices
Mediation and negotiation
Theories of Change

First Aid, AED, CPR - Infant, Child, and Adult (2024)

The American Red Cross, Chicago Action Medical

Community Accountability (Technical training, 2018)

Just Practice Collaborative

Circle Process (Technical training, 2017)

Kay Pranis, Eastern Mennonite University

Civil Mediation (Certificate, 2017)

Washtenaw Dispute Resolution Center

Street Medic (Technical training, 2016)

Chicago Action Medical

Bachelor of Arts in Literature (2009)

Albion College

core values

I recommend "The Live Your Values Deck" by Lisa Congdon and Andrea Niculescu if you're looking to identify and work through values with others.

Curiosity: To desire to learn or acquire knowledge; to ask questions; to wonder; to assume there is more to a story than what is on the surface or known to me; to reject rigidity and judgment.
Non-conformity: To question and challenge authority and norms; to seek out what isn't centered, valued, or embraced; to welcome and encourage difference, especially that which is disempowered.
Compassion: To have deep empathy and sorrow for others who are experiencing suffering; to avoid causing suffering in others; to not shy away from or hide pain or struggle; to embrace a full range of feelings.
Integrity & genuineness: To adhere to a practice of honesty and of having my outer world reflect my inner world; to be what I seem to be; to align with the principles and values I proclaim; to be free from affectation or hypocrisy.
Generosity: To give liberally to others without expecting anything in return; to receive others' words and actions with the best intent.

I admire in others but often struggle with myself: mindfulness, patience, and optimism.

principles (relational)

01 — Affirming Self-expression

respecting and treating with dignity and compassion every person who works with me, &
creating spaces and opportunities where we can be our authentic selves.

02 — Upholding Self-determination + Reciprocity

obtaining enthusiastic, informed consent from anyone impacted by my actions,
treating people as experts in their own experiences, cultures, lifeways, desires, and needs, who are not subject to others' authority but who exist in a network of meaningful relations,
honoring the value and skill that all parties contribute, &
treating those who seek my skills as my partners in navigating a mutually beneficial relationship of trust (reliability, care, generosity) and agency (consensual collective decision-making).

03 — Centering Transformation + Anti-Oppression

centering the root causes of conflict in my analysis and practice,
seeking solutions that transform deeply rooted structural violence, &
struggling toward liberation alongside people and their dynamic identities, such as
- Black, Indigenous, brown, and undocumented folks and those who are otherwise impacted by racism, imperialism, and colonialism.
- Trans, non-binary, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, intersex folks and those who are otherwise impacted by cis-sexism and binary constructions of gender.
- Gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual folks and those who are otherwise impacted by monogamous-centered, heteronormativity.
- Disabled, crip, mentally ill, and mad folks and people otherwise impacted by ableism and the medical industrial complex
- Houseless, hungry, refugee, and poor folks and people otherwise impacted by global capitalism and exploitation.
- Prisoners, parolees, formerly incarcerated, detained, surveilled, and drug using folks and people otherwise impacted by criminalization and the prison industrial complex.

04 — Seeking & Taking Accountability

creating opportunities to receive feedback,
acknowledging my mistakes and harms caused, with gratitude toward those who bring them to my attention,
living within my integrity and ability to discern harm from difference, &
learning, adapting, and changing my behavior to reduce harm.