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Who We Are
Sofia Rose Smith (she/her) worked with the Los Angeles LGBT Center for several years, where she specialized in working with LGBTQ youth, offering gender & sexuality trainings, and organized the world’s largest LGBTQ youth conference (Models of Pride). Prior to this, Sofia earned her BA in Literature with a focus in Feminist, Gender and Ethnic Studies at UCLA & UC Santa Cruz, lived in Madrid where she taught English to 2nd graders, contributed to the arts and political non-profit scene, and connected with the little ones by assistant teaching in a pre-school. Today, Sofia is a Certified Community Counselor through the Southern California Counseling Center, a Council practitioner through the Center for Council, and a published author. Her most recent work can be seen in Love, Always: Partners of Trans People on Intimacy, Challenge, and Resilience. Sofia has spoken widely in both public and independent schools, non-profit organizations, and universities.
Sammy Lyon (they/them) collaborates with schools and organizations to incorporate service learning, new media literacy and sustainability education into their core programs. They lead professional development workshops for educators on tools and best practices for supporting youth leadership and community-based learning, with a focus on integrating critical media literacy and ecoliteracy principles into program design. Sammy earned an M.A. in Education, Leadership & Change from Antioch University, focusing their research on developing critical thinking and community engagement through service learning. They are passionate about youth empowerment through environmental and social justice, and work directly with students and educators to design education programs that are both innovative and ecologically just.
Lyon & Rose In 2014, newly engaged to be married, Sofia & Sammy teamed up to create Lyon & Rose. They combined their passions and experience, both personal and professional, to begin a project they love. Luckily, S & S work just as well as colleagues as they do as spouses! Sofia brings expertise as an LGBTQ professional, woman of color, and mindfulness practitioner. Sammy brings their expertise as a trans & genderqueer educator, and multi media trainer.
A note on pronouns: we all use gendered pronouns all the time because we live in a world organized by gender. Part of our work is to reflect, model, and honor the ways gendered language is evolving. We use she/her, he/him, and they/them, where “they” signifies a move to a “third” or “fluid” gender, and stretches the construct of there being only two genders.
What Our Colleagues Are Saying
Sofia has an amazing ability to make the person with whom she is speaking with feel as if they are the most important thing at that moment. – Kevin McCloskey, Assistant Director, LifeWorks Mentoring Los Angeles LGBT Center
Sammy asks perceptive and penetrating questions, which have enabled me to better come to understand my own teaching. – Larisa Showalter, Former Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning, Windward School