photo by Brittany Maxste

Grace is a writer, imaginary, and world-bender curating at the intersection of queerness, resource mobilization, climate & environmental justice, and Black dignity & imagination. She is grounded and guided by Walida Imarisha’s visionary fiction, Christina Sharpe’s wake work, bell hook’s revolutionary love, and tasha’s reminder to take care. She approaches her work with curiosity, limitlessness, and an unflinching orientation toward abundance and collective liberation.

Grace created The Lupine Collaborative (TLC), an organization for Black women, transgender, and non-binary climate & environmental writers. The Lupine Collaborative’s mission is to advance environmental and climate justice by abundantly resourcing Black women, transgender, and non-binary people to dream, ideate, and write toward a liberatory future. We envision a world where these communities are able to access joy, liberation, and environmental/climate justice in their lifetimes. TLC resources these communities through writing retreats, creative grants, and a partnership with Milkweed Editions.

Recently, Grace was a fellow with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, where she acts as a thought partner, catalytic organizer, and writer to further their Shifting Systems Initiatives.

Previously, she co-directed People of the Global Majority in the Outdoors, Nature, and Environment, the largest gathering of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who work in connection to the land. Under Grace’s leadership, the organization’s funding doubled and allowed for field trips, scholarships, arts programming, a leaders council, and strategic planning. She was instrumental in growing PGM ONE from 200 to 800+ BIPOC participants and expanding the team to two co-directors and a Leaders Council of twenty. She established a rapid response Black Joy Fund in 2020 to support the joy, dreams, wellness, and imaginations of Black folks and raised and dispersed $30k in two weeks. 

As a consultant, advised Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s $1.2 million “Building an Inclusive Conservation Movement” strategy and went on to lead their “Diversifying the Conservation Field” inquiry process to determine the foundation’s role in the conservation field. She advised the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation on their $10 million investment in the development and growth of emerging and active environmental justice leaders throughout California. Grace led The National Wildlife Federation’s Women in Conservation program through a theory of change, advised on The North Face’s Explorer Fund strategy, and successfully led Patagonia’s search for their first environmental Justice Program Officer. Additionally, she has consulted with the Network for Energy, Water, and Health in Affordable Buildings, Next 100 Coalition, Earth Island Institute, and the Meridian Institute. 

In 2022, Grace was awarded a fellowship co-funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Pisces Foundation that allowed her the time, perspective, space, and resources necessary to design the framework for what is now The Lupine Collaborative. 

She serves on the advisory committee for The Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation and the Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity at the University of California at Berkeley. She’s an alum of Storyknife Writers Retreat in Alaska, PhiloXenia Writers Retreat in Morrocco, and Rockland Residency’s inaugural Black artists’ cohort.