Ms. Lianna Costantino, guest speaker
How often do you think about your ancestors? Do they have a place in your life? In your heart? Why should we remember them? I’d like to offer a few suggestions.
Ms. Costantino is a Citizen and Activist with the Cherokee Nation. She has chaired several Cherokee grassroots initiatives, including First Nations Safe Space, providing free telehealth counseling to Native American people during the pandemic, and the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, which is an intertribal anti-fraud task force.
She teaches foreign languages at the local college. Costantino’s numerous activities include serving on the Executive Committee of the Jackson County Branch of the NAACP, where she also serves as chair of the religious affairs committee. In addition, she manages a non-profit organization called Diversity Zero to 13, focused on racial and social justice and equity.
Other activities include facilitating a Street Medic Collective called The Awesome Medicine Possums and its continuing ed medical skill sharing program. Currently a retired midwife, Costantino volunteered as a paramedic and midwife at Standing Rock during the winter of 2016 and many other protests.
Costantino has a BA degree in religion and philosophy. She has served at several hospitals, universities and prisons as well as the U.S. Army at several posts, as a Pagan chaplain and pastoral counselor. For 20 years, she has facilitated Sylvan Hearth Pagan Temple in Sylva, NC. The Temple is a non-profit organization that offers community sabbats, pastoral counseling and rites of passage.
Topics: Blessings, Communication, Connection