This is a conversation with Crystal Middlestadt (She/Her, They/Them). This episode includes topics such as domestic violence, code switching, finding our professional voice and how to begin the process of healing trauma. Crystal is the Executive Director of the Chinook Fund.

The Chinook Fund supports grassroots organizations working on issues of social and economic justice; by pooling our collective resources, we seed groups making a positive, systemic impact to improve the quality of life for all Coloradans. Crystal previously worked for the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT), Survivors Organizing for Liberation, a former Chinook Fund grantee, and is proud to have helped kickstart resource mobilization gatherings at the Allied Media Conference.

During their tenure at GIFT, Crystal was proud to bring the 2016 Money for Our Movements: A Social Justice Fundraising Conference to Denver. Crystal is a board member of Resource Generation, serves on the steering committee for the national Giving Project learning community, and participated in the Transformative Leadership for Change fellowship for Colorado leaders of color.

Crystal was raised in a small, working class town in Oregon by a family of paper mill workers and was the first person in her family to graduate from college. After receiving her B.S. in Sociology and Women’s Studies from the University of Oregon in 2003, Crystal moved to Denver and soon began organizing around issues of gender justice, LGBTQ anti-violence, and racial justice, sparking her to put down roots in this mountain state. They are continually inspired by Adrienne Maree Brown, author of Emergent Strategy, who reminds us that what we pay attention to grow. Crystal lives in southwest Denver and spends their spare time learning to garden, building their vinyl collection, sneaker shopping, and camping throughout the West.

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Music: Inte-Gritty by Bianca Mikahn

Art: Maite Nazario | http://www.maitenazario.com

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