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photo by syd london

About Leigh

I am a strategist, facilitator and consultant supporting innovative, creative and critical exploration, dialogue and implementation about issues related to diversity, inclusion and equity. Working solo and with a team of collaborators, I provide workshops, coaching, strategic planning, facilitation and more using fun, unique and interactive techniques to help your group grow.

About me

I am originally from Omaha, Nebraska and moved to New York in 2005. A white and Native trans queer person with disability, I have spent my entire adult life working at the intersections of art and social justice and equity, utilizing Theatre of the Oppressed techniques and working with the queer and trans* movements. I work with organizations, businesses, community groups, faculty and students to strengthen understanding about power, privilege and oppression and to provide stronger tools to make positive change in the world.

 

Experience

In 2000, I started organizing in Omaha as the voter canvassing coordinator against the so-called Defense of Marriage Amendment. Ever since I have been dedicated to developing and supporting change-makers. 

 

I have worked for several non-profits including the ACLU, GLSEN, Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation and The Forum Project. I also have worked for large and small for-profit businesses in service, finance and retail industries. As a consultant, I've worked with many clients to understand the impacts of systemic power, to develop strong critical analysis to help develop tools for doing good work better. I bring experience training advocates and organizers across the country on non-profit management, legislative advocacy, campaign strategies and engagement and most commonly on positive and effective strategies for addressing power, privilege and oppression in their work.

 

I hold a BA in Theatre with an emphasis in Directing from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a individualized Master of Arts from Gallatin at New York University, focusing on utilizing creative participation for political and social change with course work in community studies, public policy, non-profit management and campaign strategies. I have studied Theatre of the Oppressed techniques and other creative pedagogy techniques since the late nineties, working with facilitators from around the world, and have trained with TO's founder Augusto Boal multiple occasions. I was also a Out in Front Leadership Fellow with Stonewall Community Foundation in 2011. I am proud to have served as a Board Member and Board President of Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed from 2011 to 2018.

 

Clients

Agnes Scott College
Amida Care
Association of Theatre in Higher Education
BeWilder Arts
B
ig Apple Performing Arts
Borough of Manhattan Community College
Brooklyn Community Pride Center
Broo
klyn Free School
Brooklyn Museum
CARLE Institute
Center Against Domestic Violence
Columbia University Medical School
Columbia University Teacher's College
Common Justice, Vera Institute of Justice
Condé Nast
Coro Leadership Center of NY
CUNY Law

Daily Kos

Disclosure the Film
Downtown
Brooklyn Arts Alliance
Education
al Alliance
Emerson College
Fatherly.com
Florida Immigrant Coalition
Flushing International High School
Fordham High School for the Arts
HR&A Advisors

Hetrick-Martin Institute
Horace Mann School
IDEAL School

International Rescue Committee
Kimberly-Clark
Kingsborough Community College
Kurt Hahn High School

Landscape Architecture Foundation
Miss Hall's School
Mount Sinai
Museum of Art and Design

The National LGBT Cancer Network
Nazareth College
The New School
New York Coalition of Radical Educators
New York Trade School
NYC Child Care Resource and Referral Consortium
NYC Department of Youth and Community Development
NY State Association of Independent Schools
NYU Steinhart School of Education
Parsons School of Design, The New School

PENCIL
Project SOL at Grand Street Settlement
Queens Museum
Roundabout Theatre Company
Scenarios USA

Sero Project
Shakespeare on the Sound
Sierra Club
Smith School for Social Work
Stonewall Community Foundation
SUNY Cortland

The Solutions Project
Thirdway Theatre, Melbourne
University of Florida Multicultural & Diversity Affairs
University of Iowa, Cedar Falls
University Settlement
Washington University
Wheelock College
Young People For 
Youth Enrichment Services, LGBT Community Center

Collaborators
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
Occupy Everywhere
Partners for Collaborative Change
Queers for Economic Justice
Sex Squad LA
The Forum Project
WIN Collective


Conferences
Creating Change
Facing Race Conference
Free Minds Free People Conference
Gender Odyssey Conference
Left Forum
Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference
People's Recovery Youth Summit, Occupy Sandy
Philadelphia Trans Health Conference
Race Matters Library Unconference (keynote)
Trayvon Effect Conference (keynote)
US Social Forum

Diversity workshop participants engage in creative game play to explore power dynamics

photo by syd london

Publications

Performing Truth: Queer Youth and the Transformative Power of Theatre of the Oppressed, Come Closer: Critical Perspectives on Theatre of the Oppressed

 

Queer Youth Embrace Fluid Identities, The Indypendent

 

Guiding Frameworks

 

My work is informed and motivated by:

  • The work of Augusto Boal, Paulo Freire and bell hooks

  • Post-colonial feminism

  • Critical race theory

  • Queer theory

  • My friends and colleagues in the Theatre of the Oppressed movements

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