I am deeply committed to reimagining how we heal and lead.
I am so excited to write what I consider will be the first of many blogs where I will share more about my journey, my work, and my vision. My hope is that we can create a space where we can hold each other's stories, dreams, lessons, and wisdom and be in community with one another! I do not have a plan but I want to set the intention of sharing once a month, at minimum, but grounding myself and allowing my intuition to guide me as I share. I welcome you to engage in the comments, share my blog, or just take the best and leave the rest.
On May 19, 2021, I attended my graduation ceremony at University of Southern California. Celebrating the milestone of obtaining my Doctoral degree has reminded me that endings are necessary to make way for new beginnings. I recognize how fortunate I was to be able to celebrate while in a global health pandemic. I am still processing what it means to get to this point. As a first-gen student, it feels quite surreal and I am not gonna lie, I struggled with sitting in this moment and celebrating this accomplishment. It took a lot to get here.
This journey has been a lifetime in the making. The last 5 years have been filled with so much growth, transitions, learning and unlearning, and redefining who I am and what my purpose is. I will share a lot more about those lessons in the coming months.
The last 5 years have been filled with so much growth, transitions, learning and unlearning, and redefining who I am and what my purpose is.
I recently onboarded the first interns for the my start-up organization, Healing Justice Transformative Leadership Institute, which included three MSW student consultants and the first Racial Healing and Justice DEI Fellow who will support me in building the Institute from the ground up and I could not help but reflect on the journey itself. Looking back, I consistently strived to expand the organizations I worked with. Even back then, I talked about the problem of sustainability and burnout within the social justice and social change sector.
What I can say is that my journey and my work has made my purpose clear: I am deeply committed to reimagining how we heal and lead. This is what led me to develop the Healing Justice Transformative Leadership Institute also known as “The Institute”, an organization that will focus on integrating healing in leadership development, social justice, and racial equity work and increase sustainability of social justice leaders, organizations, and social change movements. I also own my micro-enterprise Wild Luna Botanicals, a self-care and wellness lifestyle brand where healing and brujita magic come together.
I know that this journey is made by walking and I also know that I am not meant to do this alone and if there is something you should know about me is that I always bring my community everywhere I go. I am leaning on my network and community to help me build capacity for this work and support the Institute.
Support me, my work, and the growth of the Institute. You can donate to the Institute at here. Please make sure to follow the Institute on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and share with your networks, funders, and others who would love to support my work.
Thank you for being part of my journey!
Dr. Patty Ramirez, DSW, is a transnational social worker based in Los Angeles. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Healing Justice Transformative Leadership Institute. Dr. Patty earned her Doctorate of Social Work from USC’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Dr. Patty Ramirez is a founding member for the first-ever Los Angeles County Crime Victim Services Advisory Board and the owner of Wild Luna Botanicals-- a self-care and wellness lifestyle brand.
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