How did Democratshe come to be? Do you have a story from your childhood or your youth? Um, how did this all evolve for you?

Yeah, so it started with me going into social work.

I was a social worker working with our unhoused community dealing with mental illness, and I thought that was gonna be my career.

I got a master's in public policy to fight for them.

I got a master's in social work to better support them, and then very dramatically, in 2014, I was told that I would never work again because I got a brutal autoimmune disease.

And I did sit for two years on a couch, and I got...

but I'm stubborn and academic, so I studied more about the brain, and I studied more about how people thrive during suffering and how we overcome obstacles.

How do you connect with these young people? Where are they located? Are they all around the country? What does the model look like? Are there school chapters? Like, how does this work?