Originally from Schuyler, Nebraska, Abbie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Religion and Spanish from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. After college, she served two years as an international volunteer in Lima, Peru, working with the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, serving women and children in poverty. She is fluent in both English and Spanish.

She also holds a Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, where she conducted research on wage theft among Latino/a/x immigrants in Nebraska.

Although not a journalist by trade, she believes the work of Omaha Documenters provides more people with the opportunity to be involved in the community, while providing a greatly needed service to so many more. It is providing access to information on decisions that impact people’s lives on a daily basis.

In addition to being the director of Omaha Documenters, she also consults with nonprofit organizations on areas of program monitoring and evaluation and grant writing.

Prior to this role, Abbie worked as a community organizer for 11 years with the Heartland Workers Center. There, she helped to build the organization from scratch, implementing its Get-Out-The-Vote campaigns, starting its worker rights program and leading lobbying efforts at the state and federal levels. She also helped grow the organization beyond South Omaha, going to Schuyler, Nebraska City and North Omaha to lead the HWC toward expanding its mission beyond the Latino/a community. In addition, she wore a variety of hats, including grant writer, human resources manager, operations director, and bookkeeper.

In her free time, Abbie is a soccer coach with PACE (Police Athletics for Community Engagement) and teaches yoga at the YMCA. She also enjoys running, traveling, reading, baking, hanging with her two dogs, and laughing with her baby grandniece.