Imelda was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, where a lot of her family still resides. A place that to this day, remains a huge slice of home. She remembers being on the road, and she’s been told that was in 2004; and although they didn’t originally place themselves in the Columbia River Gorge, they seemed to follow the Big River all the way here. Imelda heard her mother share the other day — this is her home. Every time she lands on a plane and she catches a glimpse of Mt. Hood, that’s when she knows. Something that Imelda is still learning today. She graduated from Columbia High School and experienced first-hand rural White Salmon as a teenager, living just outside of the Mt. Adams recreational area, but within city limits. She describes feeling as if she had stumbled her way to CultureSeed, finding a slice of home here, where she could tangibly see what generations past, hers included, needed all along. Learning to belong. Imelda’s background is in Psychology and Human Development, but she has shifted focus to support Programming with back-end systems, data and evaluation, translations, information technology and social media. Imelda is professionally inspired by prevention work in rural communities as well as creating safe spaces for divergence of any kind.