Meet Theresa, PhD, MSW
Rooted at the intersection of arts, anti-oppression, and multi-level change. Planting seeds for transformation. A little bit about me…
My gender pronouns are she/her/hers. I am a second-generation Filipina American who grew up in the Midwest, spent twelve formative years in the Pacific Northwest, and now lives in the American South with my amazing family. Over the last twenty years, my career has flowed into interesting, interconnected directions: social worker, nonprofit programming and management, educator, instructional consultant/faculty developer, Theatre of the Oppressed (T.O.) facilitator and practitioner, writer and teaching artist.
Through teaching interdisciplinary courses and facilitating workshops and events, I have engaged multitudes of learners, leaders, and community members in various liberatory arts approaches including: Photovoice, community oral histories, devised theater, interactive and applied theater, Theatre of the Oppressed, and multi-modal storytelling. I am the co-founder and former co-director (2012-2017) of Theater for Change UW (TfC) a program of the University of Washington’s Center for Teaching and Learning that uses T.O. and other participatory theater approaches to advance interpersonal, educational, and institutional change. Since its founding, TfC has engaged ~2000 people in transformative learning, skill-building, and action-taking. More recently, I have run embodied workshops with student, staff, and faculty groups at Virginia Commonwealth University and College of William & Mary. Furthermore, I am a founding board member of Richmond Story House, a nonprofit organization dedicated to unearthing and amplifying diverse stories in our communities.
Ongoing immersion in these anti-oppressive practices has been transformative. To continue my lifelong learning and skill-building journey, I regularly attend and facilitate interactive workshops at the annual Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed conference. Moreover, I participate in anti-oppression, embodied, T.O., and writing workshops and trainings whenever I can. Over the last few years, I have enjoyed and benefited from taking workshops from Branch Out Theatre, InterPlay, Kundiman, Life in 10 Minutes, and Cheryl Pallant. Check out these amazing folks!