Artist, Nomad, Advocate: The Losses and Leaps That Shaped Kirsten Dickerson's Life of Service (Part 1)

Jennifer sits down with her friend and travel companion Kirsten Dickerson, founder of Artist & Nomad, in Kirsten's garden flat in London. Kirsten opens up about the moments that quietly rearranged her life: a family that lost nearly everything, a mother she wasn't sure she could hold onto, and a faith that kept nudging her toward the next unlikely yes - from the sorority halls of Baylor University to the bustling streets of Calcutta. What emerges is the origin story behind the life Kirsten has built. “Noticing leads to wonder. Wonder leads to gratitude.” - Kirsten Dickerson📍 This episode was recorded in London, England.This is Part 1 of a two-part episode. Part 2 will be released 7/21/26.MEET KIRSTEN DICKERSONKirsten is passionate about living mindfully, empowering women on the margins of society, and promoting ethical design in the artisan craft sector. She has traveled extensively (over 40 countries), building meaningful long-term relationships with artisans, designers, and local guides.Kirsten is a visionary leader with 25 years experience in the social business and non-profit sector. She has helped to launch and grow both impact businesses and global nonprofits such as Raven + Lily and Tirzah International and is the founder of Artist & Nomad. She has mentored and coached female change-makers across the world and helped develop a global emerging leader curriculum now used in 35 countries. She helps design and renovate large impact projects such as retreat centers, storefronts, and nonprofits. She is a textile, natural dye, and fiber enthusiast. Kirsten has also served as an art director and production designer for film projects ranging from commercials and music videos to features. She is currently directing and producing an award winning feature documentary on artisans.Her real passion lies in exploring the intersection of faith with creation care, creativity, and contemplation. She practices Franciscan spirituality and actively lives out those convictions in her everyday life. Kirsten is also a nature enthusiast and a Texas Master Naturalist as well as an active artist who loves to paint in nature and invite others to join her.With Artist & Nomad, Kirsten offers her experience and expertise to curate travel experiences, develop and source ethical products, and empower people to think about all levels of ethics involved in our everyday choices, especially revolving around the world of slow living and slow design.CONNECT WITH KIRSTEN🌐 Website: | artistandnomad.com📷 Instagram: | @artist.and.nomadKEY TAKEAWAYSThe people mattered more than the plan. When Kirsten's family lost their home and became homeless the summer before her junior year at Baylor, it wasn't a strategy that got her back to school, it was an aunt who took them in and an anonymous donor who covered her tuition. She's spent her career since trying to be that same bridge for other women.Holding your loved ones through dark times leaves a mark that becomes a mission. Kirsten talks about staying on the phone, praying her mother through the darkest nights of her parents' divorce - an experience that shaped her lifelong advocacy for women with no financial safety net.Sometimes the calling arrives before the explanation does. A photograph passed around a meeting, an audible voice on a drive back from San Diego - Kirsten's biggest life decisions, from Estonia to Waco, came from a felt certainty she couldn't always justify in the moment.Empowerment isn't theoretical when you've lived the alternative. Raven + Lily grew out of Kirsten's own experience of financial precarity and the women overseas she watched rebuild their families through their own income.Grief doesn't wait for convenient timing. Kirsten's husband heard he was supposed to move to Texas the same day she learned her mother had stage four cancer. Meanwhile, the company she'd built was left in her garage for nearly a year while she grieved.The world really is small, if you keep saying yes. From a stranger funding her husband's first film after one dinner conversation to a friend rebuilding her own company out of the stock left behind in Kirsten's garage, this episode is full of moments that only made sense looking backward.SEO KEYWORDSnomadic life story, ethical fashion pioneer, Raven and Lily founder, Artist and Nomad, women's empowerment podcast, faith and calling, overcoming poverty and homelessness, Franciscan spirituality, artisan documentary filmmaker, social entrepreneurship story, expat life in London, family grief and resilienceSTAY CONNECTEDThe Human Experience Podcast | Instagram | FacebookThe Human Experience Legacies | InstagramConnect with Jennifer on Substack | LinkedInSupport the Podcast