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About Annie
I am an artist, coach, and educator. My work is focused on how we share space with others and create space for ourselves. My professional background is in public health, creating greater ease of access for patients; in the arts, as a writer, creator, producer and performer; and in education, as both a primary school and ESL teacher with a specialty in social emotional development. I have decades of experience helping people of all ages navigate difficult systems, find joy and connection through creativity, and learn how to fully develop their own sense of empowered and embodied self.
My pedagogy is rooted in trauma-informed care, generative somatics, and developmental psychology. I work with people of all ages — coaching adults through lived and intergenerational trauma, dissociation, dysregulating patterns, and identity exploration, and tutoring kids in ways that support not just their learning but their social and emotional development, meeting them where they are. My goal, in each role I fill, is to help people connect to their creativity, manage their energy, and regulate their nervous systems. I use embodied practices to make sense of what neuroscience teaches us about how we work. Art and making run as an undercurrent through nearly everything I do, and part of the joy of working with me is discovering the creative in yourself, even if that's not how you usually think of you. I'm here to bring a little more joy, connection, and magic into our lives through knowing ourselves fully, and to help the people I work with build the capacity to thrive in a world that doesn't always make it easy.
homemade toaster, age 10
EDUCATOR
As an educator my focus, beyond academics, is on the social emotional development of my students. I strive to create spaces where young people, even very young people, feel a sense of agency and ownership of their space and their learning journey. I give students the tools to name and move through big feelings, deal with conflict, give real apologies, and solve their own problems. I delight in contributing to the confidence, critical thought, and community mindedness of my students. I co-wrote and presented How to Share Space as a free resource for educators, families, even book clubs, to offer tools for creating an environment of personal responsibility and commuinty care where everyone can flourish.
ART IS EDUCATION
Below is a small sample of the pieces I've created with students of all ages and abilites. From poems to surrealist games, to drawing challenges. These can punctuate any tutoring session or become their own focus. Flexible and creative thinking is for everyone!
Collaborative Poem, 2026
Doodle Adventure: In this practice I create a pencil doodle blindfolded. The student then turns the page again and again, highlighting and fleshing out the images they see in the scribbles.
Cadavre Exquis: in this writing game each writer writes one line and once they've reached the next line, the leave only one word and fold back their sentence. Each writer builds off of one word and when it's done, we see what we've written.
ARTIST
I have a long and varied background in the arts. I have been a producer, performer and photographer. I have made films, choreographed, and costumed. I am a writer, a seamstress, and a creative explorer. I have explored pewter casting, glass fusing, fashion design, graphic design, collage, embroidery, drawing, painting, and much much more. I love the process of creation. Art is iterative. We are constantly making, editing, destroying, and remaking. It connects us, it changes us, and it changes the world around us. It is creativity that fosters critical thinking, curiosity that begets exploration and transformation. And I'm here for it.
PERFORMANCES and PRODUCTIONS
Score For an Unrehearsed Ensemble
Stills from Gender Tender
Stills from Gender Tender
Portland, OR
Portland, OR
Sepia Showcase Promo
producer
Trans*Mission
producer
Queer Social Club
producer, graphic designer
FILMS
film still, "Searching for Empathy"
writer, filmmaker, editor, producer
film still, "The Tourist Trap"
producer, performer
PHOTOGRAPHY
Lucia as "the ZombAlien"
2025
VISUAL ART
EDUCATION AND CV
Education
I earned my Bachelor's degree from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. I am a TEFL certified ESL teacher. I earned my certification as a bilingual primary education teacher through The New Teacher Project and Dominican University. I am trained as a holistic and somatic coach by the Radiant Coaching Academy, with supplemental learning through the Strozzi Institute and the Politics of Trauma courses from Staci Haines. I am in the process of being credentialed by the International Coaching Federation.
Other Experience and Artistic Endeavors
1998 Photographer and University darkroom manager, Iowa City, IA
1999 Writer, director, filmmaker; “Violent Delights”, short film, Iowa City, IA
2001 Writer, director, filmmaker; “Searching for Empathy”, short film, Olympia, WA and Portland, OR
2003-2006 Founder, Choreographer, Costumer, Performer; Hellcat Hussies Burlesque, Chicago, IL
2005 Producer, director, performer; Mobtown Moxie Revue; touring variety production, west coast and Canada
2007-2009 Student;
Digital Filmmaking, Chicago Filmmakers
Pewter casting, sewing, screen printing, the Discovery Center and Lilstreet Studio, Chicago, IL
Fashion and Graphic design at the International Academy of Design and Technology
2007 Producer, performer; The 48 hour Film Project, “The Tourist Trap”, Des Moines, IA
2008-2010 Freelance seamstress and functional fabric artist, Chicago, IL
2010-2012 Producer, “Gold Moon, Sharp Arrow” a film by Malic Amalya, Seattle, WA
2011-2013 Performer; Assorted variety shows, Seattle, WA
2011-2013 Performer; Assorted variety shows, Portland, OR
2011-2013 Founder, director; Queer Social Club, Seattle, WA
2011 Co-Creator, performer; “Communing with Community” performance art piece collaboration, The Foxhole, Seattle, WA
2012 Performer; “Score for an Unrehearsed Ensemble”, Northwest New Works Festival, Seattle, WA
2012 Performer (“Snake”); “Apocalypse Soon” a play by Courtney Meaker,Seattle, WA
2012 Producer; “Trans*mission”, Seattle, WA
2012 Producer & Performer; “Apocalypsia”, Seattle, WA
2012-2013 Performer; “Gender Tender”, Seattle, WA
2013 Artist in Residence; Studio Current, Seattle, WA
2013 Co-Producer; “Sepia Showcase” in partnership with Oh Snapz! Productions, Seattle, WA
2017 Founder, Co-Director; Atom Fire Arts creative and educational programming
2020 Co-Author; “How To Share Space” through Project NIA’s educators’ toolkit series
2021 Presenter and co-writer; webinars based on “How to Share Space” in partnership with Project NIA
2021 Co-Author; reprint of "How to Share Space" in the anthology Lessons in Liberation by the Education for Liberation Network
2024 Creator; Atom Fire Arts Somatics, small group sessions focusing on embodiment through somatic practice
2025-Present Artist, Educator, and Somatic Coaching at ARTerrell.ART and in the NWI area.
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