Ricky Bratz is a plant nerd, queer dog mom and survivor of Sicilian/SWANA/Eastern European roots. Her time as a member of Greensboro-based radical marching band Cakalak Thunder (2003-2008), serving as a board member of Fund for Democratic Communities (2007-2009) and as an intern with Student Action with Farmworkers (2006) are part of her formative politicization.

Throughout the Triad and the Triangle, she has initiated and/or been involved in projects such as: healing justice, community gardening/farming, food justice, labor organizing, homelessness, community centers, collective living, racial equity, consensus decision-making, and queer liberation. Ricky holds a BA in Health Arts & Science from Goddard College and did her thesis work on the intersections of racial identity, trauma, & herbal medicine. Most recently, Ricky was a coordinator with Resourceful Communities and provided capacity building and technical assistance to rural grassroots organizations under their Healthy Eating Active Living Initiative and small grants program.

Ricky also maintains a private healing arts practice, Cazimi Healing, that focuses on supporting people working for social change in healing through plant medicine, energy work and functional medicine. She believes that knowing, connecting to, and healing our Selves is vital for the health of our communities, organizations and movements as a whole.

Asher Skeen (he/they) is the current Queer Mobilization Fund Coordinator and has worked for Southern Vision Alliance since 2017, working alongside QMF in multiple capacities since 2018. He entered movement work in 2016 around NC HB2, pushing for student equity within his high school and throughout Durham Public Schools, particularly focusing on building safer and knowledgeable educational spaces for intersectionally-marginalized youth. Prioritizing his mental health and healing journey, Asher has taken a nontraditional approach to formal education and is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s in Leadership in the Public Sector, expecting to graduate in December 2024.

A Triangle, NC native, Asher is a singer-songwriter and musician performing within the local music scene, and released his album Man-Made Man, a project that follows his vocal transition over the course of his first year on testosterone, in 2019. He has a passion for home bartending and is a cat parent to Cobweb and Toby. Asher currently lives in Henderson, NC, but enjoys staying connected with his Durham community.

Torrianna Foster (they/them/we) is a queer and disabled organizer, ethicist; and community educator born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Torrianna has a BA in Religion and Practical Theology, an M.Div, and a MASJ in Womanist and Feminist Studies, focusing on Black Feminist organizing, consent education, and cultural wellness. They have served as a K-8 educator, certified intimacy coordinator and coach, pastoral care minister, and curriculum developer. 

Torrianna champions the spiritual, sexual, and communal power of Black queer and trans femmes in the South with a distinctly joyful, embodied, and trauma-informed approach. While teaching and leading organizations through power building, social-emotional learning, and age-appropriate sex education; Torrianna empowers their kin to take back their power through mental, sexual, and spiritual wholeness. 

Torrianna is a lifelong learner with a passion for Black queer storytelling, womanist activism, and Megan Thee Stallion. When they’re not advocating for abolition and accessible sex education, you can find them reading a romance novel, daydreaming about llamas, or watching a cult documentary.