Ann Valliant

Southern family of small farmers/ranchers and skilled trades entrepreneurs, Ann was trained from birth to continually evaluate the intended and unintended consequences of the way things are done. Black women's clarity in the Southern civil rights movement inspired her to deeply engage in feminist and class analysis and activism. Thanks to the women's liberation movement, by the late '60s she understood the connections between her father's liver failure from herbicide poisoning, the benefits and costs (and to whom) of assigning subservience to groups of people and the inescapable necessity and power of inspiring change in one mind, one heart, at a time. In the mid-'80s, Ann recognized that computers would revolutionize business; they remain her favorite tool and toy. Since then she has consulted with small businesses in a variety of industries, implementing software for operations, helping their staff change their practices and upgrade their skills.

She came out as a lesbian, had a baby in 1981 by donor insemination, became a disciple of Gurumayi (Swami Chidvalasananda) and continues to plant trees and put in gardens everyplace she can get her hands into dirt. Her constant question: what is served by believing this thought?