Embedded Files
Writing Samples
Writing Samples
The articles and papers below demonstrate my writing and interests.
What my Grandmother's murder taught me about juvenile "justice"
What my Grandmother's murder taught me about juvenile "justice"
Crosscut.com/Cascade Public Media, (c) 2014. | OPEN |
Opinion | Thought Leadership | Social Justice | Equity | Community Organizing | Personal Essay | Social Commentary
In the midst of community organizing to oppose a youth jail being built with $210M of public money, approved by voters under false pretenses, I wrote this opinion piece drawn from personal experience. It was published in the respected local public media newspaper, Crosscut (whose site was taken down in 2025, following the federal defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting).
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"...They came to my grandmother’s neighborhood to rob houses for things they could sell. The crime ended in a tragic, inexcusable act, but it began with an economic motivation.
The troubling relationship between race, crime and economics has plagued our country since its inception. Policy decisions guided by conscious and unconscious biases have continued to economically disadvantage people of color. Prison construction surged around the time slavery ended, and diversion programs replace incarceration mainly when the economy is weak — because locking people up is expensive.
This fall we have an opportunity to confront these issues locally, as Seattle City Council and King County representatives consider moving forward with plans for a new youth detention facility in the Central District...."
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Intergenerational Empowerment:
The Financial Purpose of Habitat Homes
Intergenerational Empowerment:
The Financial Purpose of Habitat Homes
Habitat for Humanity Seattle King-County (c) 2016. | OPEN |
White Paper | Academic Research | Funding Proposal | Nonprofits | B2B Marketing | Brand Strategy | Financial Literacy | Financial Empowerment | Redacted |
The well-known, #1 nonprofit brand nationwide was having trouble introducing itself to a new generation that associated Habitat for Humanity with Jimmy Carter, older times, and "giving homes away." To correct this misperception, I conducted academic research on homeownership statistics, including contacting study authors, to rewrite the narrative for a fresh crop of corporate and institutional donors--successfully increasing fundraising by 70%.
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"Imagine an financial literacy program where 99.3% of participants graduated, having saved nest eggs averaging $82,000. Results like that would make headlines. However, hidden behind the finished homes built by Habitat for Humanity is exactly such a model--built in from our inception."
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Doctors Without Barriers
Because your health is too important for anything to stand in the way
Doctors Without Barriers
Because your health is too important for anything to stand in the way
The Perspective/Newsletter of GSBA (c) 2019. | OPEN |
Marketing Copywriting | Advertorial | Brand Awareness | Interviewing | Journalism | LGBQIA+ Advocacy |
PacMed Clinics sponsored the Greater Seattle Business Alliance as part of our commitment to LGBTQIA+ care. Our sponsorship came with a full-page advertisement in their biannual member newsletter. I led our creative team in designing both an ad (with copy playing on the well-known "Doctors without Borders" organization), and a deeper presentation of our medical philosophy, which I shaped from the words of one of our LGBTQIA+ physicians, who.m I interviewed for the piece.
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"Empowered Doctors Empower You:
How a Culture of Caring Improves the Patient Journey
"Empowered Doctors Empower You:
How a Culture of Caring Improves the Patient Journey
In a high-caliber market like Seattle, a lot of attention gets paid to the surface of medicine: who has the best telemedicine, the flashiest advertising, or the most recent facility remodel. But do those things really translate to better care for you and your loved ones?"
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A Robin Hood for Religion
The System of Ghazali's Islamic Reform
A Robin Hood for Religion
The System of Ghazali's Islamic Reform
Bard Journal of Social Sciences (c) 1997. | OPEN |
Academic Research | Academic Journal | Religious Studies
As an undergrad completing a term paper for the Islamic Law course at Bard College, I assessed all recent published works on this famous eleventh- (Islamic fifth-) century scholar, including an inter-library loan acquisition of an unpublished dissertation, synthesized and critiqued the literature, and make a novel contribution to the field.—iCourse professor Jonathan Brockopp called this paper "the best thing I've read on Ghazali to date."
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"...The system that underiles these formulations if Ijma and Sunna can be summarized by an analogy to the Aristotelian concept of the growth, which I will describe in terms of a plant. The Well-Guarded Tablet is the parent plant, and it has a form given by its truth. A seed of this truth was planted in the world at the event of Muhammad's prophecy, and this seed matures into truth within the world, according to the Aristotelian concept of reproduction. (Presumably seeds were planted through Jesus and Moses as well, but these were stunted from achieving their perfected form, paralleling the Muslim regard for other monotheistic faiths...).
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