Our Team

My desire to find queer community in St. Louis first led me to SQSH, and my desire to create and facilitate spaces for this community led me to join the team. I'm most excited about seeing the positive impact our organization can have on the St. Louis queer community and fulfilling my role in ensuring SQSH and our community members thrive!

I'm excited to work with SQSH to help create a community where we have the language and confidence to advocate for ourselves and create protected spaces that is inclusive of all regardless of sexuality, gender, religion or other facets that develop our unique identities.

Queer liberation at the forefront! I am a 3rd generation Black Saint Louisan. Working with SQSH I am able to serve my community in cultivating Saint Louis's revolutionary potential. I am rooted in radical traditions that center post colonial imagination, joy, love and compassion.

I first joined SQSH as a member of the STARLING Queer Healer Collective, and quickly became enamored by this organization’s dedication to community support & liberation. Now stepping into the position of Systems Change & Healing Justice Facilitator, I work as a Weaver in the social impact ecosystem, and I'm motivated by co-cultivating embodiment of liberation at the cellular and global levels. Whether I am strategizing with the Systems Change Fellowship, or offering a group somatic healing session, I’m dedicated to transforming the root causes & conditions so queer St. Louisians can move from survive to thrive!

As the Resource Building Storyteller and Educator (RBSE) I am excited to talk to, learn from, and uplift queer voices in St. Louis. I strongly believe in decolonization and liberation, and operate from an anti-capitalism/anti-colonialism lens. I specialize in meeting people where they are at and I am passionate about teaching queer liberation and allyship. I'm excited to work at an organization where I can be authentically me and know that all of me is valued!

“I’m really excited to contribute to the St. Louis queer community and get involved in queer advocacy! I think visibility is really important for queer folks, and as someone who grew up without much representation or role models, I’d love to be part of the effort to change that for the next generation of young people!”

“Since the start of the COVID pandemic, SQSH has been my queer home – my space to grieve community losses with queer & trans friends, to ask for and receive support, to grow in my political analysis and values, and to channel my passion into systems-change action.

At SQSH, I love how we try our best to live our values in the way we work and communicate with each other, and that includes prioritizing wellness over strict deadlines, inviting radical honesty & feedback, directly navigating conflict, and centering lived experience & wisdom.”

“I co-founded SQSH because I believe we all have the potential to respond compassionately to each others’ emotional needs. I grew up in a society where showing ’negative’ emotions was bad, where being queer was wrong, where mental health was shamed and sequestered away. When I immigrated to the U.S., the St. Louis LGBTQIA+ community astounded me with its diversity and vibrance. Passionate about teaching peer counseling skills, I started an organization to offer that to my newfound community—first as a training, then as a service. This is the best thing I’ve done with my life.”

“I came out as queer and trans/non-binary within the last year or so, and the support I have found here in St. Louis has allowed me to gather the courage to persevere and lean into a more authentic version of myself. Recently I have felt powerless and frustrated with the current social and political climate, and the SQSH offers a way for me to pivot by giving direct aid back to my community. I am excited to be exposed to a diverse spectrum of queer experiences and to be part of a mutual exchange of joy, kindness, and support.”

SQSH felt like a very accepting place for me to be in amidst all the other community spaces that I occupy. I am comfortable being who I am here & taking up space. I'm most excited to be working directly with callers in St. Louis to build a more positive, supportive & strong community

I started at SQSH as a clinical advisor and was blown away by the thoughtfulness, caring and commitment to social justice in all parts of the organization. I have also served as a practicum supervisor and I so excited to be part of the Starling Team. As a trans and bi man, I am proud to support my communities by supporting SQSH.

SQSH is a great home for my passion of helping folks soften into their experience of pain and find joy. I spent a long time figuring out how to align this with my political values and it feels like SQSH gets that! They have been so responsive and supportive in making a home for me and my healing colleagues through the STARLING program. I'm absolute stoked to be supporting their volunteers and staff in such important work to build structures of care and solidarity into the web of St. Louis.

I actually started volunteering with SQSH in 2020 as I was in massage school, and had been on the helpline for 2 years before shifting into my role as somatic healing coordinator and then later as a STARLING healer as a massage therapist. I am so grateful to be a part of SQSH! My involvement with this organization has shown me what it's like to work with people who value the well-being and humanity of every individual within the collective, and that has allowed me to grow towards my best self in ways I would have never imagined possible before.

I have really enjoyed supporting SQSH in less formal capacities in the past. As a STARLING Healer, I am most excited about moving into a more structured supportive role within SQSH in a way that allows me to use my skills to support our community. My hope is to build an even stronger connection with queer healers and SQSH as we co-create a community that is transformative and deeply healing.

I knew SQSH was meant for me when two people connected to me sent the information about the healers collective on the same day. I am most excited about increasing my knowledge and ability to advocate for more intention with individuals of the global POC majority. I know I have both a lot to learn and a lot to contribute. I look forward to both.

Kelsey (they/them) has always had an interest in community support and care, and has been interested in joining SQSH since one of the organization’s first tabling events at Tower Grove Pride. As a member of the Press and Newsletter teams, Kelsey hopes to use their penchant for writing in a way that promotes and connects the queer community and fosters healing, growth, and knowledge.

“I resonated with SQSH because of their Queer Immigrant Outreach program. This program is vital, as in queer immigrants are often not included within queer spaces, and differences in language and/or culture should never be a barrier for someone to receive community support.”

“My goal in joining SQSH is to help people feel heard and safe. As a parent and privileged member of our community, it's important to me to help make our space more equitable and loving as possible.”

“As a queer individual, I am an LGBTQIA+ and mental health advocate and hope to connect members in my community to affirming mental health services. I also hope to provide community education, which I value as an educator and someone who has a penchant for service. Overall, I am excited to promote compassionate community care through my work at SQSH.”

“I volunteer with SQSH because liberation and social justice mean a lot to me. As a queer, disabled STL native and professional "organizer" in various areas, I wanted to assist my community behind-the-scenes in this collective effort.”

“I joined SQSH because it’s important to me to be there for the next group of queer people who will have this resource available to them as they are exploring their own identity and what it means to live authentically in this world.”

“Throughout training, I learned and improved upon many wonderful skills. One that sticks out is asking good open-ended questions. Though this skill seems like it might be easy or common-sense, through role plays with other volunteers I learned the challenges as well as the importance of utilizing open-ended questions and active listening to create a safe space and open dialogue with callers and others.”

“When I moved to STL, I knew I wanted to plug into the queer community ASAP. Joining SQSH has connected me to some of the most compassionate and loving individuals. I’ve not only been able to use my computer skills for a positive impact, but I’ve learned so much about quality peer support.”

“St. Louis is my ‘chosen city,’ the home to my chosen family and a place that has held me since I moved here shortly after coming out. SQSH is one of the ways I try to give back. SQSH strengthens our networks of community support, creating more spaces for becoming and healing, for queer people to feel seen and heard.”