As the co-founder of Hellbender Harm Reduction, I'm a harm reductionist, medical anthropologist, and writer in my hometown of Knoxville, TN. While a firm advocate for community driven harm reduction, reproductive justice, and housing first models, I understand these issues cannot be separated from a larger social justice framework. I hold a PhD in anthropology and a graduate certificate in gender and women's studies from the University of Kentucky and a master's in anthropology and master's in public health from the University of Colorado.
Photo by Cline Rowe
Photo by Cline Rowe
Rx Appalachia focuses on women's encounters with substance use treatment in rural Central Appalachia. All author proceeds from Rx Appalachia are directed to Hellbender Harm Reduction. More broadly, my work and research examines how state and non-state actors intervene in people's lives based on shifting understandings of place, gender, ethnicity, class, drug use, and sexuality. Documenting how people navigate state policies, socioeconomic inequalities, and networks of relatedness in Appalachia contests depictions of people who use drugs or Appalachians as helpless victims or creators of some moral crisis.