Leda stories
Leda’s family and friends created a memory book to celebrate her 50th birthday. Click here to download the PDF and read these wonderful tributes.
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Do you have a memory of how Leda affected your life, your perspective on the world or your organization? We would love to hear your stories and memories.
Please come back and visit this page again as we will be adding more stories to the site over the coming days and weeks.
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Latest memories
I met Leda in 2004 at a multi-day media training for activists. I felt an instant connection and was intrigued when Leda told me she wanted to tell me about something very intense that she was feeling at that moment, but wasn’t quite ready to express in words. She was kind of freaking out, she said with her big Leda smile. Later that weekend she told me that the site of the training we were attending in Marin County was the commune where she grew up. It was her first time back, and she was feeling all the complicated emotions that came with her childhood in Synanon.
Leda and I bonded over our passion for social justice, our love of dance, our love of people. I am a person with a terrible sense of memory, but I have vivid memories of some of Leda’s stories. I remember her recounting the first time she and Andy met in person – what a romantic and incredible story! I remember Leda describing how strange it was to be the only woman on the Huffington campaign; Leda thumped her chest as she described the testosterone flying in the room with all the young men angling to be the strongest primate around the conference table, all trying to impress Arianna! Leda was a great storyteller.
When she had Jaren, Leda poured herself into mothering (and as she described it, her mother poured herself into grandmothering) with an intensity and love that was beautiful to watch. Our kids were about 5 years apart in age, so our lives took different paths and we saw less and less of each other.
The last time I saw Leda was well before her cancer diagnosis. We met over lunch with our mutual friend Andrea Buffa. I think Jaren was early in elementary school – we talked about our children’s happiness and updated each other on our lives. I wish I could go back in time and spend time with Leda when I had a chance. It’s hard to fathom that I will never see her face again in person, but when I think of Leda, I can perfectly picture her beautiful and contagious smile.
I don’t actually remember exactly when she met, in part, I think, because she was one of those people who always felt like she fit completely in my life. We hired Leda to help with a tech overhaul at IISC, in part because she was the rare person who always looked at people and leadership as part of the equation. She was pregnant with Jaren when we started the work, so much of it was done virtually. We became fast friends, and more important deep friends. When she first found out she had cancer, she reached out, knowing I had been through stage 3 five years earlier. We shared so many views of life, including how we thought about cancer. I adore Leda (even now, in whatever form she’s now in). She cared deeply about justice, but wanted to be sure work was done in a way that promoted belonging. And she absolutely and completely adored her family. The most important and perfect thing of all. I’ll forever miss Leda.
I see Leda standing by the benches in the play area at Park Day, waiting for our kids to be released. The wide, bright laugh, the aliveness and warmth that reached out and wrapped itself around all of us. When she spoke, her words were tactile, like something I could hold in my hand and pick up with a spoon or a fork. She had so much joyfulness and kindness, standing there each afternoon. Her energy took up space, and that space reached out and touched me. Warm. Loving. Life-embracing. Always with laughter. I see Leda there, open, inviting, perceiving, curious, listening, responding, processing, delighted. I see an earth mama, and I loved being with her at pick-up.
Leda and I were in our early 20s in the dance community in San Francisco. She had a piercing intelligence and was always in the center of every conversation with a rapt attention and comments that would make you pause.
There were many times that I remember her curious joy and mind stretched into a movement of exploration as part of a contact Improv open dance format and her gentleness and commitment would be with every person she danced with. She was not identified as a dancer but I could see the depth of her wish to communicate in those moments. It was as if every fiber of Leda’s being wanted to communicate and dialogue with the potential that we as humans have in our precious lives for aspiration, longing, desire and communion.
When she would open the conversation, there was humor, profound sources and a humble listening that made it possible for the best in each person to come forward.
It was as if she never lost the connection to her childhood and brought that same sense of play to all she did.
My heart aches to know that I will not be in that group facilitation again with her and I am so grateful that she was able to work and love and have a family before she was taken from us.
I wish those who are her dear ones the balm of tender remembrance. What a joy she was.
When I met Leda, she was 19 and I was twice that age. I researched Synanon and learned things that continue to be of value. Leda — tall, magnificently beautiful, and always with a radiant and happy smile! I treasured my new young friend. We went Christmas shopping in Berkeley once. She said she needed gifts for “all my parents.” How many people have four parents to buy for? She remembered when Grandpa Charlie had everyone shave their heads; she was about 5 years old at the time. I once visited her Berkeley apartment and watched in real time as her long hair curled up into ringlets after a shower. OMG, did I love Leda!
Leda was among the first person to help me when I started leading WiserEarth 15 years ago. Her passion and dedication for technology for social good was incredible. She was always so generous in giving back and sharing inspiring words to the Wiser community.
Thank you for being you LEDA!
Leda was amazing. She was a friend and a recurring presence in my life at different stages throughout the last couple decades. Wonderfully supportive and also wonderfully direct in a way that always felt supportive and empowering. Even though I didn’t see her frequently, when I did it always instantly felt like family. I last ran into her a couple years ago at the gym, after her diagnosis, and she had taken to super intense working out and weightlifting, which just felt amazing and perfect. Even from our casual conversation that day I walked away with encouragement and wisdom that I still think back to and lean on regularly. She’s still invincible to me. Unforgettable, wonderful Leda.
What a beautiful tribute you are building for Leda. Leda was a force and although we had not seen your family for many years, we remember Leda’s spirit, energy and joy viscerally. We are so sorry for your loss.
Leda was the first person I knew who saw that the real challenge in nonprofit and activist technology wasn’t about the technology—it was about organizational development and culture. She was also a thoughtful and inspiring user of technology: “If I’ve got less than five minutes [in a line-up, or waiting for someone, or in any of those interstitial moments] then I try not to take out my phone,” she told me. I have tried to follow that practice myself, and whether I fail or succeed I love that taking out my phone (and then putting it away!) makes me think of Leda.
Once the kids were born, we had many conversations about the role of technology in the kids’ lives. (Someone at Google needs to be held accountable for the fact that a statistically significant portion of our text exchanges focused on how to manage or block YouTube.) Her caution around managing her kids’ screen time was a mirror of so much of what I loved and admired about her: her keen analytic mind, her appreciation for both the potential and the risks of technology, and especially, her fierce and devoted parenting. To be in a room with Leda and the kids was to be immersed in a field of love.
What made Leda extraordinary in both life and death was her ability to hold contradictions without needing to simplify them. As a result she was one of those rare people who are able to see the world as it is, with all its pain, while also remaining optimistic. When I was despairing about Trump’s election and what it meant for the future of the world, she told me she thought it might be “Voldemort’s last stand”: a final burst of evil that would be vanquished by good.