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Hi! I'm Artie, and I use they/them/theirs pronouns. What pronouns do you use?
I was born and raised in Concord, NC, outside of Charlotte. I knew I was LGBTQ as a middle schooler in public schools. I attended a conservative Baptist college for three years, where I nearly completed a Religious Studies BA, with minors in youth ministry and YMCA studies (essentially nonprofit management). I was part of the Student YMCA and developed community programming and worked to improve programming at a local YMCA. After my junior year, I transfered to UNC Charlotte where I studied social work for three more years, focusing on LGBTQ+ youth and families. I did my undgergraduate field placement at an LGBTQ youth center. As a graduate student, I did field placements in Intensive Outpatient mental health and as a foster care case manager. In my masters program, I focused on LGBTQ+ youth, especially trans youth, and policy. My capstone was on transgender adolescents, risk behavior, and harm reduction. Upon graduation, I remained a foster care case manager, and then became an HIV medical case manager. During that time, I was working as a Political Action Committee (PAC) vice chair and organizing for local LGBTQ issues and leading an endorsement process. I was also coordinating an award-winning local young adult LGBTQ group I co-founded. I shifted to macro social work and became a regional managing organizer for voting rights and democracy, and then an LGBTQ+ statewide lead organizer. Today, outside of my consulting and workshops, I am strategy director with an LGBTQ+ nonprofit. I am also a Master of Divinity Student with a focus in LGBTQ+ Studies at Chicago Theological Seminary. I've led several community organizations and been an organizer for over 15 years. I've trained professionals from every sector, across the country, on community organizing and LGBTQ+ competency. Today, I live in the North Carolina mountains with my partner. I'm bonus parent to an amazing preteen, and you can usually find me chasing our dachshund-coonhound, Wyatt. I am founding principal at Pride Education Services, and there are lots of ways to work with me. Let's chat! | ||