Jo is a mixed-race POC, Queer mama, and community care worker who serves as Intake Manager and co-manager of the Healthline at ACCESS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE. They were first called to this work as a young person, supporting their immigrant loved ones through the various and numerous barriers faced when seeking dignified, culturally humble, and comprehensive healthcare & social services. Jo practices their care work through the Reproductive Justice framework, expanding through the lenses of racial justice, climate justice, returning land to Indigenous care, interdependent autonomy & mutual aid, abolishing punitive & carceral systems, dismantling patriarchy, unlearning the colonizer’s mentality, harm reduction, sex-positivity, and building resilient & regenerative communities. Jo is a lifelong student whose studies span relational arts, community organizing, reproductive & sexual wellness, ancestral practices, and grief & loss.
As a parent, care worker, and small piece of the greater collective, Jo’s life is centered around giving lots of love and care to those around them. That alone brings them so much joy. Jo is a ritualist & animist who, to take good care of themself, spends time in communion with the land, the water, the cosmos, their ancestors, and all manner of beings. A few of their favorite things about the human experience are cooking and eating all the foods, binge-watching teleserye, healing with halamang gamot (plant medicine), being in the moment with loved ones, writing down strange musings, dancing to a beat, and transforming big feelings into art.