Welcome to Everything Must Change!

When I began researching global crises, I was interested in understanding them - but even more, I was interested in discovering what I could become and do in order to make a difference. My research led to a book, and then some friends, and then some friends and I began organizing a speaking tour. Before the tour even began, I began meeting people who said, "I feel the same responsibility and desire and hope. How can I help?" Soon, the idea for this site had emerged - a place where more and more people can become part of this process of understanding, becoming, acting, and joining together.

This initiative, which you are getting a glimpse of here, is something I have been preparing for my entire life. I have been concerned about issues of justice since childhood. Growing up poor in the rural south and befriended by local farmworkers, I found myself drawn to help those victimized by the actions and attitudes of others. As I grew up and entered the workforce, as a minister and leader in a nonprofit dedicated to serving poor and homeless families, I knew there must be strategic ways to solve the major crises of the day.

I have lived a charmed life...
 
My father was a political prisoner in then communist Russia, but who was eventually allowed to leave with his family, a miracle attributable largely to the inexplicable kindness of strangers.
 
Growing up poor east of Los Angeles, I rarely felt my poverty:  my 8 siblings were always present to solve the boredom issues that can often accompany a lack of material wealth.  Being the first in my family to graduate from a university, I was given my first job (drum roll, please):  my title was mailroom clerk.