I grew up in the Bay Area before I moved to Washington, DC where I was an editor in the Intelligence Community before I retired. I was a founding member of Interracial Pride in Berkeley, California while I was married to my first husband who is from Eritrea. We have two daughters, Asmara and Sara. I completed an MFA in Poetry at American University in 2010. My poetry is published as Simki Ghebremichael and recounts my travels to Ghana, Eritrea, Vietnam, India, Czech Republic, and Japan. I love language but am fluent in none, including Spanish, French, and Japanese. I am married to Peter Kuznick, co-author of The Untold History of the United States with Oliver Stone. We live in Maryland along with numerous reptiles and amphibians. I have been learning about Pauli Murray ever since my dear friend, Bart Rousseve of New Orleans (d. 1993), gave me a copy of Proud Shoes in 1986. 

​