Naissa Isaro

Orli Avi-Yonah, Ph.D., is an Israeli-American social worker and clinical social worker and clinical psychologist raised on a kibbutz in Israel. Dr. Avi-Yonah has been working and teaching in the field of trauma for over three decades. She was the founding psychologist for the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School and is currently teaching at Harvard Medical School’s Cambridge Health Alliance. She has published on the use of mindfulness in negotiating and on addressing inequality. Since January 2018 I have ben working on a project of listening across differences. The project involved a 6 month road trip in 2018 followed by a 2 month road trip in 2019 in which I conducted lengthy interviews with people about their understanding of American history, the current state of the country, and projections about the future of their local communities and the country as a whole. The interviews were conducted in 10 different states across the south and south west and included people who represent the entire political spectrum.