diane@cpedv.org | Public speaker, researcher, evaluator, coach, mentor, and soon to be author, I have accumulated over 30 years of personal and professional experience in the field of violence against women with an emphasis on violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women. Over the past 22 years, I have had the privilege to consult and partner with over 200 tribal non-profit programs as well as organizations serving people of color and other minoritized populations providing training, technical assistance, and evaluation services. In 2014, I started Gray O.A.K., LLC, a Native and woman owned research and evaluation company. The overall mission of the company is to empower communities and develop internal capacity through the promotion of ownership, autonomy, and knowledge. My work is built on a framework for assessment and evaluation that is interwoven with the art of storytelling.

As Director of Impact Strategies, it is my intention to incorporate this framework to advance beyond standard, fixated evaluation methods to allow us to better identify and understand the transformative nature of our work in this field; identifying the profound changes that can only be discovered by thinking radically, listening with awareness, and documenting intentionally. My approach is instructed and complimented by my personal experiences as a survivor of multiple forms of abuse and my professional experience in trauma-based practice working with survivors of rape, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence.

At heart, I am an advocate who believes passionately in telling our stories. I have presented nationally, sharing my own stories of survival and healing. I live with my life partner and husband, and I am the mother to three amazing children and a Nani (grandmother) to four. Having lived in the Central Valley and So. California for over 20 years, I am very excited to be embarking on this new journey with an organization so ardently committed to social change both within and outside of the state.