My acquaintance with and commitment to the National Self-Represented Litigants Project began in 2020. I was fortunate to land upon the NSRLP’s existence as a struggling self-rep in my own family matter in Vancouver, B.C. I was a student of the first offering of the NSRLP School for Self-Represented Litigants in 2021. That experience was a significant turning point in my self-understanding of what is at stake in the Access to Justice movement. I learned that access to justice is not only about being allowed to stand inside the rooms where justice is served and to hold a copy of the book that will be thrown at you. Instead, access to justice is a profound reorientation of where and who justice comes from, when it comes. I bring my newfound sense of appreciative inquiry into the movement for access to justice to my role on the advisory board for NSRLP.

I am not a lawyer. I am philosophical pragmatist, which grounds me in critical feminism and the study of conventions and practices. My pragmatism is also my license to mix myself in matters where I am far from expert. My 2017 book, Pragmatic Justifications for the Sustainable City: Acting in the common place, explains much of how I approach arguments, differences, and my commitment to intentional change although it is rare. I appreciate the intentionality of the law and its structures. I also recognize this stance as a cover for a monumental apparatus of uncertainty, bias and wrongheadedness.

My recognized expertise is in public and urban policy. I hold a PhD from the New School for Social Research, a M.S. from Rutgers University and a B.Sc.(Hons) from the University of Victoria. I am a professor of urban studies and resources and environmental management at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, a nature lover, hip hop aficionada, amateur Irish dancer, and proud mom.