Shanda (she/her) has always had a passion for helping people and a great love of stories. Having spent her childhood witnessing the compassionate work of doctors, nurses, staff, and volunteers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where her younger brother has been a patient for 27 years, she developed a strong sense of empathy, an understanding that every person deserves kindness and care, and a desire to build a more equitable world. It also awakened in her an interest in better understanding her fellow humans through the stories and experiences that move, change, and drive them, which led her to a Journalism degree, a career as a USA-traveling photojournalist, and now to Galvanize Action.