Thank you for visiting my page! I feel so lucky to do what I do; to either be the first point of
contact that some have with sex education, the middle man that makes it engaging and affirming,
or the person who can help folks heal from previous wounds inflicted by individuals or
curriculum. I firmly believe that knowledge is power, and that knowledge comes in many forms.
As such, my work is grounded in decolonial approaches, nonbinary epistemologies, and
culturally-informed content and pedagogy. I believe the classroom, wherever it may be located,
is a sacred space that we all enter into with our own experiences, histories, and knowledge that
deserve to be seen, felt, and heard.
As a trained anthropologist, I am invested in humans. I am interested in how we make meaning
in our lives– especially in a world that does not always make it easy to exist– and what different
meanings our actions take on in different contexts. I am also passionate about asking hard
questions and discussing hard things. An example of this is interrogating what we see as “safe”
sexual behaviors. Oftentimes, sex educators and public health officials label sexual behaviors in
a binartistic “safe” or “unsafe” manner. But I am interested in approaching this through asking
what folks who are engaging in “risky” sexual behaviors gain from these experiences, and how
can we affirm them through education?
Speaking of inclusion, I am also extremely passionate about rejecting binaries in all of its forms.
This includes educating from a transgender and intersex-inclusive lens, but also through rejecting
binaristic thinking in the above example. We do not live in a binary world, and making room for
the lived realities of major populations that are so often forgotten in sex education is of the
utmost importance to me.
I also used to be an actress! That occupation is something I still consider a large part of my
identity and informs how I approach sexual, gender, and reproductive health pedagogy. I often
include theatrical exercises that emphasize embodiment, somatics, connection, and internal
reflection in my teaching, as well as interrogating performative aspects of sex and gender and
both the limits and potential it holds.
Professionally, I received my Sex Educator Certification from the American Association of Sex
Educators, Counselors, and Therapists; my Masters degree from Brandeis University; and my
Bachelors degree from Indiana University where I worked as a research assistant for the Kinsey
Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. Personally, I am a proud queer,
neurodivergent Latina and Midwest transplant who loves being outdoors, consuming and
performing theatre and musical theatre, reading/researching, crafting, experimenting with tea
blends, loving on my dogs and cats, and traveling. For the astrology-inclined folks: I am a Libra
sun, Cancer moon, and Cancer rising.
My research and teaching interests are many, but here is a non-exhaustive list…
Sexual and reproductive health pedagogies; performance and performativity; pleasure; BDSM
and kink; disability and sex; intimacy; neurodivergent sex; queerness; indigenous
epistemologies; intersex experiences; nonbinary epistemology; gender and sexuality in border
crossing and immigrant experiences; research methods.
Thank you for reading!
Contact: Taylor@DarlingMentalHealth.com // (508) 305-7258
Credentials
Certified Sex Educator – AASECT
M.A. in Anthropology – Brandeis University
M.A. in Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies – Brandeis University
