When she was eighteen, Catherine Becker, found out she was a black-market baby. Resenting the lies and secrets that surrounded her real identity, along with the society that sanctions them, she set out to escape working-class life in Buffalo by riding a motorcycle across the United States, to search for her natural mother, and mother nature. Moving between myth and reality in the American landscape and beyond, a series of signs and synchronicities led her to discover who she is, and who she could become.

Catherine is the author of Mana Cards: The Power of Hawaiian Wisdom and an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii, Hilo. She teaches courses in sustainability and leadership, relational, family, and organizational communication. Her research and creative work explore the ways that communication contributes to the transformation of individuals, systems, and cultures. It crosses methodological and disciplinary lines, forges connections that didn’t exist previously, to encourage new paradigms, perspectives, and possibilities.
Her memoir, The Mother Road: A Black-Market Baby, A Motorcycle, A Search is forthcoming. Find out more at catherinebecker.com