RUNA (The People) Empowerment
RUNA Empowerment: Transforming Political Leadership Through Healing
RUNA Empowerment is the only nonprofit in Washington State providing holistic support for women of color legislative leadership. We create transformative spaces where healing meets political power—helping legislators lead with their hearts and more community by their side.
What We Do: Through culturally grounded retreats, Indigenous Wellness Wheel technology, and year-round programming, we address both the political and personal dimensions of leadership. Our 2025 retreats served 18 women of color state legislators across both chambers, achieving 100% participant satisfaction and breakthrough conversations on institutional barriers.
Why This Matters: Women of color in political leadership face unique challenges—racial targeting, being perpetual caretakers without support, caring for aging parents while raising children, and living with constant fear. Traditional political training ignores these realities. We don't.
Our participants shared profound gratitude: "Grace and opportunity to express parts of our minds, and emotional well being." They released burdens they'd carried alone and built collective vision for sustainable leadership through 2029.
Why I Need Your Support: To continue serving 25+ women of color leaders and expand our impact, we need $130,000. This investment creates stronger, more representative democracy for all Washingtonians. When we reduce tension in leaders' hearts and increase community by their side, we strengthen democracy itself.
Join us in creating pathways for women of color to lead with unwavering solidarity. Because "Runa" means "The People" in Quechua—and true empowerment belongs to all of us.
Donate today: https://giving.classy.org/campaign/650138/donate
Annabel Quintero is a visionary storyteller to help others heal. She is a September 11th survivor and creates trauma-informed spaces dedicated to public service and community empowerment.
As a certified holistic health coach and cultural wellness guide, she creates safe spaces for communities to experience Andean Indigenous wisdom, helping them remember their wholeness and reconnect with Mother Earth.
Through her work with RUNA Empowerment programming, Annabel is committed to reshaping artistic diversity, equitable wellness, and economic inclusion. She celebrates Afro-Indigenous Latino history by forging dynamic collaborations that create immersive experiences, fostering cultural understanding and transformative dialogue. Her mission is to empower leaders and communities to build harmony in their relationships, wellness, and lasting empowerment for generations to come.
Annabel works with leaders to create retreats, conferences and culturally immersive events.
Curating Experiences
Leaders need a place to feel safe, to ask questions without repurcusions and make their self care a priority.
Facilitating hard conversations, sharing caring ways to communicate with curiosity and guiding folks to connect to mother earth and trust their own compass.
I practice Andean earth based wisdom, with respect, paying homage to the original carriers of the lineage and offer one one one sessions via zoom and in person.
