Lysa Salsbury

I grew up in a number of places, but mostly in southwest England, with a British father and Portuguese mother. I emigrated to the States (to Bloomington, in southern Indiana) in 1993, after graduating from college with a BA in Spanish and Portuguese. I worked for three years as a workshop coordinator for an educational honors society, doing freelance translation and liaison interpreting on the side. After completing a challenging internship with the Translation Service of the European Commission, my reinforced passion for languages and international work led to start my own freelance translation consultancy, Roadrunner Translations. My family and I moved to Mexico City in 2000. Following a five-year residency in Mexico--which I LOVED, and still miss with all my heart--I came on board at the Women's Center in September 2005.

Growing up in a core group of strong women, I've always been deeply aware of and dedicated to women's issues. As a college student, and a survivor of sexual assault, I was very involved in gender activism. I helped to organize and participated in a number of Take Back the Night marches, and both rode and was a volunteer driver for the campus Women's Nightbus. I followed that up post-college by volunteering with a United Way domestic violence shelter, and a women and children's abuse counseling and advocacy group, and by mentoring and supporting Angolan women enrolled in a study abroad scholarship program at Indiana University.

I completed my master's degree in Adult/Organizational Learning & Leadership at the University of Idaho, originally motivated by my efforts to develop services and programs for non-traditional women students and student-parents. But I'm also deeply inspired by and passionate about feminist leadership and empowered mothering.

I love working at the Women's Center, and consider my job to be a true calling. Nothing inspires me more than interacting with my amazing colleagues and the incredible people who come in every day. Got an idea for a program we should do? I'd love to hear it! Please come in for a chat!