BIO
Tori grew up in the rural San Luis Valley of Colorado, in a family of all girls. She learned to tend to the animals on her family’s farm, work in the fields, hunt, fish, fix cars, and build houses. Her father raised her to believe that girls could do anything boys could, and her mother was a model of feminine strength. Her family and culture helped shape the beliefs that inspired her to lead a community coalition, write a book, conduct research, write a weekly column for the local newspaper, and found a women’s center. However, her legacy is far more than the things she has done. It is a lifetime of stories she heard through her rural and cultural research. She used these stories to give her community a voice, especially to empower women and minorities. She was Director of the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area (SdCNHA) from 2017 to 2019 and went on to become Regional Associate at The Colorado Trust, a health equity foundation that provides resources for capacity building, community state organizing, and collaboration at a local level. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, Sociology, and Women’s Studies from Adams State University (Alamosa, Colorado) in 2016, and a Master’s Degree in Sociology from Arizona State University in 2018.