Let's Create A Better World!
About Me
LaVerne McLeod, a retired middle school teacher, has many talents, wears many hats and spends a lot of her time creating and exploring with new ideas. Corn Hollow is her first book creation. She writes for people of all races and ages.
Her expertise for writing Corn Hollow is drawn from her childhood experiences. As an African American, being reared on a farm in the south during the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in America, LaVerne recollects many incidents of that time.
Having participated in the preparation and harvesting of cotton crops, canning, large truck patches and meat processing, she conveys smells, sensations, and flavor in her novel. Her writing passion and voice embellished in Corn Hollow, gives rise through her observations.
Currently, McLeod published her 2nd book, The Crossroads of Social and Climate Justice. With her love for the environment and being a social justice advocate, she wrote this intersectional non-fiction that explores some issues of climate and its people and gives suggested solutions to help heal both as one entity.
LaVerne loves to use her skills and talents as a Group Facilitator, Speaker, Teacher and doing Interactive Author presentations. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Education and a Masters Degree in Counselor Education. The author lives with her husband on the coast of California where she enjoys natural surroundings that nurtures her creativity.
My Passion
- Community Volunteer
- A past President of the Captain Cooper School Parent Club, Big Sur, CA and past coordinator of their annual Carnival fundraisers for 5 years.
- Fundraiser coordinator for two terminally ill community members.
- Volunteer golf marshal for several annual Monterey Peninsula First Tee Opens for kids, AT&T golf tournament volunteer 2000 & golf marshal for the 2010 U.S. Open.
- Coordinator of youth and adult runners for Big Sur Marathon’s 5-K for 3 years.
- Writer of semester and quarter articles for the Big Sur Roundup paper on Big Sur student Honor Roll achievers and their future plans for 11 years.
- Initiator of the original writing of a Fuel Reduction Grant via Fire Safe Council with the help of her neighborhood water company members 2008.
- Writer of golf articles for Monterey County Magazine 2010 & 2011.
- Team member of Big Sur CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) and was a lead recruiter.
- Clothes designer with annual Big Sur Fashion Show-7 years & Steering Committee Secretary for Fashion Show-1 year.
- Coordinator for B-SAGE’s-The first Big Sur Earth Day Fair & continued this coordination for 5 years.
- Wedding planner for 3 weddings.
- Member of Central Coast’s Wholehearted Community Chorus, a local singing group of eclectic, popular and international healing songs for 14 years. An advisory team member for the chorus and serving on the Diversity committee.
- Member of the Monterey Peninsula Gospel Community Choir (MPGCC)-member since 2017.
Co-Coordinator & Steering Committee member of (B-SAGE) Big Sur Advocates for a Green Environment. Received certificate of recognition as a B-SAGE volunteer at the 2016 annual CSMC (Community for Sustainable Monterey County) luncheon
- Panetta Institute volunteer reader for Captain Cooper School. Awarded by Panetta Institute’s, Monterey County Reads Program, 2014 Golden Threads Award for 5 years of Volunteer Reading. Total 8 years
- Founder and facilitator of a workshop series called, BRIDGE BUILDING TO EQUITY ©2017- “Exploring Tools to HELP Dissolve Racism.” See Home Page of this website for the offered trainings. Use the Contact page of this website or (831) 595-9692 for requests or inquiries. Also, read on the Events and Commentary pages of this website.
- Guest Speaker
- View on the MEDIA page-LaVerne McLeod’s TEDxSJSU talk given at San Jose State University, September 25, 2018 and released on TEDx YouTube on January 28, 2019.
- Author
Author of Corn Hollow, “New Second Edition” with a Character Directory and an Epilogue of stories by others who have experienced racial discriminations. This book is as it is subtitled, A Journey of Sorrow and Triumph, an African American historical fiction taking place in the South from the early 1950’s-early 1970’s. During the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in America, the protagonist, Tamara, searches for answers to questions adults refused to answer. Dramatic Author Presentations and Book Signings are available upon request.
Published by Purple Feather Press
- The Press
Local author releases first novel based on childhood. Carmel Sandpiper.
A local educator uses her life in the Jim Crow-era South as a backdrop for her new book.
Her Story: Monterey Museum of Art is declaring 2018 for women. Monterey County Weekly- An excerpt from the article: “Expect to see stuff from Ruth Bernhard, E. Charlton Fortune, Inez Storer, Malin Lager, Dorothea Lange and more, and special exhibits from the likes of Beth Van Hoesen, Joan Savo and Robin Robinson. The Winter Lecture Series features painter Elizabeth Murray, Monterey Symphony executive director Nicola Samra and author/educator LaVerne McLeod.”
Media Click on Media for complete Press & Videos
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
LATEST ENDEAVOR
A nature-healing experience…..
Big Sur Terra Sanctum Experience .pdf
[continue to read to learn how the connection of my experiences led to Big Sur Terra Sanctum]
LaVerne McLeod, MAEd
Educator| Workshop Facilitator | Environmental Leader | Artist
As co-chairperson for Big Sur Advocates for a Green Environment (B-SAGE), LaVerne focuses on environmental change through eco-activism. Her background with natural environments goes back to her childhood, being raised on a farm in Arkansas. As a farmer’s daughter, she witnessed, helped practice and cared for land for productivity purposes. By gaining a lot of insight into this way of community farming life, a lot of farm scenes and information can be found in the historical fiction that she wrote called Corn Hollow. This book is now in its second edition.
Pursuing an educational background that led to her becoming a teacher and school counselor, she still loved growing and used it as an interdisciplinary learning experience. She created a school garden. LaVerne saw this as a way to give her special needs students a break while immersing in nature activities to also advance their well-being. Her students learned some important aspects of permaculture combined with math and science. This included the pH soil levels, using plants as dyes and learning the basics of metric and standard calculations for a few recipes of what they grew in the garden.
Living in Big Sur became a perfect domain for LaVerne to write. She combined her teaching, workshop, environmental and research skills and wrote, The Crossroads of Social and Climate Justice. This book became a pathway for writing about the intersection of possible solutions to help heal people and creatures that inhabit the Earth while healing it. By leading beneficial workshops on these subjects as well as social justice, it’s understandable that LaVerne has a passion for creating healing sanctuary environments.
After taking a Permaculture Design Course at Santa Cruz Permaculture, she was re-kindled with natural healing and regenerative design possibilities. Thus, when she and a friend, Monica Eastway, decided to act on this knowledge, BIG SUR TERRA SANCTUM was founded.