Community
The people closest to a problem carry knowledge that institutions often overlook.
My story
I carry every part of my life into the way I lead.
I was born in Belize and now live in the Netherlands. My journey has crossed countries, movements and institutions, but its centre has remained remarkably steady: dignity, fairness, and the right of communities to speak and act for ourselves.
Not a footnote
My lived experience is part of my expertise.
I am a trans woman living with HIV since 1995. These identities are not footnotes to my professional biography, and they are not the whole of who I am. They shape the questions I ask, the systems I challenge, and the kind of leadership I believe in.
I learned early that institutions can speak fluently about communities while keeping us outside the decisions that affect our lives. I also learned that communities are never merely waiting to be helped. We organise, care for one another, build evidence, solve problems and carry institutions through crises that were not of our making.
That understanding has guided my work in Belize, across the global HIV response, and now as Executive Director of GATE. It is why I pay attention not only to who is in the room, but to who can set the agenda, question the evidence, move resources and define what success should look like.
“I do not want representation to become a polite substitute for power.”
What guides me
Values I return to.
Values become useful when they shape difficult decisions. These are the ones I return to when the path is unclear, the stakes are high or the easy answer feels incomplete.
Dignity
No policy outcome is meaningful if people are asked to trade away their dignity to receive it.
Courage
Leadership sometimes requires saying what is true before a room is ready to hear it.
Curiosity
I want to keep learning, especially when new evidence unsettles what I thought I knew.
Accountability
Good intentions are not enough. We must be willing to examine who benefits and what changed.
Beyond the work
What helps me return to myself.
Public work can become so consuming that it begins to flatten a person. These parts of my life remind me that I am more than the next meeting, deadline or crisis.
Crochet, quilting and sewing
I love the quiet concentration of making something by hand. A piece takes shape one stitch, one seam and one patient decision at a time.
Family life and motherhood
I am a wife and a mother. Family is where leadership becomes less theoretical, where care is practical and where I am regularly reminded that nobody is impressed by a job title when dinner still needs to be decided.
Max and Mambo
Max and Mambo bring noise, affection, muddy paws and strong editorial opinions to daily life. They are also excellent reminders to step away from a screen.