About me
Having a global footprint in over 70 countries and all 7 continents, with degrees in Economics and Education from the University of Virginia, Gwen is now working towards her Masters in Global Development Practice from Harvard. Born and raised in Zionsville, Indiana, according to the HUD technical definition, she was first homeless at age 14. A teacher, social entrepreneur, executive director of a small nonprofit, and filmmaker who has been forced into homelessness twice and who chose to be home-free twice, Gwen understands the many facets of an unhoused and nomadic lifestyle. From living in a boiler room of an old Wal-Mart to couch surfing with friends, she’s lived in some atypical places including the original slave quarters of Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village. She’s worked as a UHNW nanny for some atypical people from late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia’s family to creating a childcare service for the US ARMY Special Ops. As a homeless person couch surfing with her best friend in Harlem, she even interviewed with Melania Trump to be Barron’s weekend nanny.
Gwen’s small production company, Vision Forward Media, had their first documentary short premiere at the United Nations at the first intergovernmental dialogue on global homelessness, and their production team just completed their first documentary in their social justice documentary film series: humbly, the award-winning “If It Could Happen to Me, It Could Happen to You” screened last month at Harvard and will continue screening in the 11 cities where we filmed. Our next social justice documentary, ‘Traffikid’, has several additional artistic endeavors from ‘The Trafficking Tales’, supporting survivors of human trafficking through soulful storytelling to expanding the Super Kids Group book series with four age-appropriate children’s books with discussion questions. Most significantly given Gwen is a child trafficking survivor, Managing Love’s teams are working toward combatting human trafficking first at the state level with new policy before going federal. Working with some exceptional teams, our Patron Delegate is confident we will create new policy next session. Sitting on the education and community outreach committee for the Central Virginia Task Force on Human Trafficking, it is also Gwen’s greatest hope to help raise awareness and education to help combat child trafficking.
