State Senate: Nobles turns trauma into leadership

Eighteen months ago, I happened upon an online forum featuring T’wina Nobles. It was the first I’d heard of her, but I was immediately captivated by her straightforward eloquence and deeply held values.

So, I was elated to learn she is running for state Senate in my district, the 28th.

Her personal story is inspiring. Having begun life as a daughter in a military family, things turned bad and she was thrown into years of homelessness and foster care during her formative teenage years.

Few kids recover from that devastating experience, but T’wina used it as motivation to finish her education, then become a leader in mentoring youth. She knows the power of education to counter trauma.

As a former educator, I have watched with horror the terrible injustice inflicted by the COVID-19 crisis upon our most vulnerable students, who have had no access to computers or the internet for remote learning and connecting with teachers and counselors.

These students have suffered irreversible educational loss since March. I want T’wina in Olympia fighting to make sure this systemic injustice is righted.

This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 12:11 PM with the headline "State Senate: Nobles turns trauma into leadership."