We're exploring the world with one another

kerry naughton (she/her)

When kerry was a toddler, she wanted to grow up to be a dog.

When she was in 2nd grade, she wanted to grow up to be a mommy, President of the United States, and married to Han Solo.

In 6th grade, kerry wanted to be a mom, POTUS and an archeologist, and married to Indiana Jones (she imagined saving him from trouble, not the other way around).

In real life, for more than 20 years, kerry has worked in the crime victims and survivors’ support movement. Through this work, kerry has studied and practiced the science and art of resilience and empowerment, connected language, and repair with self (and, when appropriate, other people).

kerry is co-director of OAASIS. Over the course of her career, she has worked in Washington, DC on national victim assistance and survivor support programs, as well as on statewide public education and policy advocacy campaigns and in direct service. kerry helped facilitate national conversations and thinking around the common ground between the survivors’ movement and criminal justice reform movement.

kerry’s long-time dream of being a mom became reality when kerry’s focus on her career reached about the 20-year mark (thankfully, she was able to be an auntie to some of the most spectacular people on the planet during this time). kerry is the happy mama of a fantastic toddler (and still happy auntie to spectacular kids and adults) and spends a lot of time pretending to be a garbage truck.

kerry@repairenting.org

Klarissa Oh (she/her)

Klarissa Ling Oh grew up in her mom’s home preschool, the home that is still the family gathering space for her family—the matriarch (Grandma Oh), her two sisters, their partners, eight grandchildren, and others seeking family or space with Grandma Oh’s “don’t you dare lock that door” policy.

Klarissa attributes her mom, the preschool, and a welcoming home (to unique, complex, and often quiet characters) for her love for children, her longing to nurture intergenerational community, her love of attentive listening to things both said and unsaid, and her elation to be a part of repairenting!

From her own experience and through listening, she knows what a caring, attuned, and invested adult can mean to a child’s life, and she longs to contribute towards adults (neighbors, aunties, uncles, siblings, parents, teachers…) doing that work: being with and for children and young people. She believes that we are better able to do so when we meet and nurture our own beloved selves with attunement and radical welcome.

Klarissa loves to create space where this kind of attunement—and dynamic magic—can happen with self and with others. She has done this work with OAASIS, starting in its early days when she co-founded the organization. And, she did it in her Quaker community, where she recently transitioned from her position as Released Minister in the Society of Friends. Klarissa has a nuanced understanding of trauma, extensive training in Non-Violent Communication and anti-racism, and lived experience of being an Asian American woman and daughter of an immigrant. Klarissa has focused her work on the intersections of trauma and systemic oppression. As an organizational leader and seasoned facilitator, she creates spaces where people can engage in honest and needed conversations, holding space for both difference and connection. Prior to OAASIS, Klarissa focused her work on children and families. She co-founded and led the Maternal Infant Health Integrator, served as a home visitor/parent educator with Healthy Start, and taught parenting classes for adults and divorce/family re-organization classes for children.

These days, Klarissa is nurturing and contributing to home and welcome, especially for and with young ones, including two curious and energetic sons (ages 3 and 13), two nature-loving and adventurous inherited/step-daughters (ages 17 and 22), nieces and nephews, neighbors, and chosen family. She also loves nurturing home in her own body, especially through dance, movement, loving self-accompaniment, and being with her beloveds.

Mel Anthony Phillips

(he/him)

As a preschooler, Mel used his terrific imagination to transport himself to the farthest reaches of his pre-K universe. In his fantastic galaxy that sensitive little empath was transformed into a bigger, stronger, smarter, braver Super Self whose amazingness struck every witness with fascination and awe.  Coincidentally, around the same time-frame a vivid lucid dream experience facilitated by his grandmother forever altered Mel’s reality about the actualization of dreams. More than an antidote for his sudden bout of nightly bed wetting, Granny Ann’s primitive ritual (the pre-dawn search, gathering and eating of 7 speckled wild quails’ eggs, her water ceremony, and Mel’s ultimate dreamscape triumph) was undeniable proof to a small child that dreams were real, tangible, powerful. Since then, Mel has always reveled in dream chasing and the joy of creativity.

Mel’s professional background is long, varied and, while interesting, not particularly exciting. In his teens, Mel enlisted and later was honorably discharged from the US Armed Forces. Afterwards he worked at law firms before branching out with his own freelance enterprise.  Next there was hospital administration, and then the consulting gigs, and on to the national museum. All good stuff for sure, and as fond as Mel was of those plum assignments, the truth is his day jobs never defined him. What is more important to him is how, over several decades, he has been able to use every learned skill, special talent, gift and blessing he was ever endowed—and the great challenges, too—and transformed them all into passion, empowerment, and purpose for himself and others.

Mel’s coalescence around serving vulnerable people began in earnest the moment he determined to use his keen legal knowledge to help under-resourced people in poor communities with their basic legal needs. Soon he was a neighborhood lone wolf civil rights advocate who regularly volunteered his professional skills and services to small local grass roots organizations, tiny home-based social justice causes and frontline community organizers. He often helped spread awareness and joined in many nonviolent public marches and civil protests. These formative times edified Mel’s charge as a champion for peace and social change. During these early years of activism, Mel also got more actively engaged in the process of reckoning with his own unresolved trauma. Mel studied independently, and read as many do-it-yourself transformation material as he could consume, balanced with a good dose of humorous and inspirational books as well. At that time, he began to use creative writing and expressive introspective, self-reflective artwork as modes to lend meaning, structure, language and resonant voice to his complex past experiences. In this way, Mel has gone on to develop his own unique style of art-centered trauma-informed techniques for achieving personal wellness. In 2003, Mel transitioned totally from corporate interests to nonprofit causes. He has conducted his art expression sessions for children and adults, as well as Queer folks and people of color in under resourced communities.

A half-century later, Mel the peaceful warrior is co-director of OAASIS. He is a recognized leader in the movement to end violence against women and girls. Today, Mel is a parent, partner, writer, and artist whose dreams and creativity remain the cornerstone of his character and the core of his practice of personal well-being.