Amy Shoemaker

Amy loves to sing prayerful songs loudly in stairwells and while riding her bike. She love mornings, books, and tea, especially all together. Some of her greatest joys are meals in community, meandering walks in full sun, being in nature of all types (forests and deserts especially), and giving big hugs to dogs she has just met. She is a listener, a learner, and a lover of life’s small joys.

Amy grew up in San Diego, received her BA from Pomona College in Mathematics with a minor in Philosophy, and received a MS from Stanford University in Computational and Mathematical Engineering. She taught high school math at Andover Phillips Academy, an East Coast prep school, and at (HS)2, a Colorado residential summer program for underserved students, both of which involved living in community with young people. She also lived in several intentional communities, including a monastery in Bodh Gaya, India, Green Gulch Farm in Muir Woods, and the Urban Adamah Fellowship in Fall 2017.

In her current career, Amy works as a data scientist for the Stanford Computational Policy Lab (SCPL), where they use mathematical and technological tools to expose and work to change systemic inequities in the criminal justice system. In January, Amy will be transitioning into a new role: Director of Community Outreach and Inclusion at SCPL, in which she will be building relationships with community organizations and helping to ensure formerly incarcerated and other marginalized voices are heard and elevated in our work. She volunteers at the Stanford Hospital doing spiritual care work, and in 2020, she will be starting professional chaplaincy training. In her life’s greatest work, which never seems to feel like work, is connecting to the earth and to the human spirit through compassionate listening. She derives much of her strength from her loving communities, her partner, and from Jewish, Buddhist, and earth-based spirituality. (As one might have guessed, this makes Urban Adamah a pretty great fit for her!)

She is really looking forward to being a part of the Urban Adamah board to support an institution that has shaped the best parts of me, to bring the Fellow perspective into the conversation, and to learn from all of the collective wisdom and experience on this board. She can’t wait to meet you all!