Welcome to my little cove at the Lotus Archives. I am Anne, but I prefer being called "Ember." The name "Ember" was born amidst the intense political climate that we have. It represents my spirit of advocacy and passion. It is also a reminder to myself to never stop burning brightly at every stage of my life, whether that is professionally or personally. 

As a Social Work Doctoral Student at USC, I am currently nerding out from examining the carceral system and reentry programs. The U.S. Criminal system is ineffective, costly, and continues to create more trauma. It is also inflexible and unwilling to look into a humane approach to incarceration. What I am hoping to do is to bridge the gap by merging Norway's Halden Maximum Security Prison Humane Prison model with an animal training program within the jails and prisons. This is so we can retrain humanity and hearts, releash hope, whilst ensuring that men and women inside have second chances. This is where the idea of Project R.e.l.e.a.s.h was born. It's an acronym for Restoration, Empathy, Liberation, Employment, Achivevement, Support, Hope.