Dominique Paloma Bible, Lead Researcher

I was born blocks away from Ipanema. I am The Girl from Ipanema who doesn’t speak Portuguese very well.

Days after my 8th birthday in Pindamonhangaba, São Paulo, I immigrated to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where I attended elementary, middle, and high school. It is where I fell in love with my chosen family and where I made a home for myself.

With over a decade of experience working with young people, I have a mixed background that includes tutoring, teaching, group facilitation, out-of-school-time (OST), place-based, and community education. My education work includes mental health advocacy and anti-racist efforts.

It is critical to acknowledge my whiteness — as a privilege, a positionality, as unearned property. It is my responsibility to unlearn oppressive and racist ways of knowing, being, and doing. It is my responsibility to expose systems of control (e.g., destructive -isms and -phobias) for the sake of systemic change and the liberation of people. It is my responsibility and honor to empower others and highlight their voice and agency. This work is lifelong.

My pronouns are she/they.