Hi, I’m Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Maria Ortega, I also go by Sam. I am a holistic and intersectional sex and socio-emotional educator and facilitator with both young people and adults. I am also a creative facilitator of workshops, trainings, events, and classroom spaces around diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging, human sexuality, intersectional sociology and feminist theory, gender studies, queer history and theory, black and brown histories, and health justice and holistic wellness.
I received my Master’s of Arts degree in education and Holistic Sex Educator certificate from Antioch University. I have developed and facilitated workshops, trainings, and curriculum with organizations, schools, and businesses for 12 years. My work has included topics and themes around anti-oppression, social justice world building, group dynamics, leadership development, food and health equity, gender and racial identity, sexuality, sexual and sensual pleasure, communication and relationships, intersectionality in all things, and art & creativity as vision tools. Currently, I am an adjunct professor at Antioch University and work with high schools and organizations.
I was raised in the hot borderlands of the Southwest desert, chasing ice cream trucks and making friends with the lizards and cacti. The eldest of 4, I grew up to be a facilitator, teacher, mentor, and a sex & health educator centering social justice and equity. Being a queer mixed-Latina/e I embody the “borderlands” in my lived experiences, straddling lines of identity and perspective. I spend much of my time reading and discussing sex, relationships, intersectionality and all that lies in the in-between. In my day-to-day I seek to understand how to exist and hold spaces for groups of young people and adults in “nepantla,” a Nahuatl word for the space in between two worlds.
Mixed-Latine, Mexican, queer and from humble working class roots, I do my best to center justice and holistic wellness in my life and work. I am continuing (always) to learn with the folks I work and live my life with to stay grounded in imagination, holding possibility, curiosity, humility, personal and group accountability, embodied growth and working across and with difference. And, I do best and feel best with gobs of sunshine and warmth.
“They are an unparalleled facilitator in so many ways, and deserve to be honored as such.”
Sieglinde Levery-Nicholas- Director of Community Engagement