About Me: Ann NSM

Thank you for dropping by. So nice to meet you!

Photo of Author, taken by a friend.

Welcome! This is me, the person in the picture above.

My name is Natassa Ann Sta (pronounced Santa) Maria. Here on Medium, I have used my second name, Ann as my “writer name”. (Non-members can read the whole article here).

The person in the photo above is a wife, mother, former career person, now full-time homemaker. I am a Malaysian of mixed-Portuguese descent…although the “mix” happened centuries ago…(another long story for another day). I was born and raised in a town called Melaka (Malay for Malacca) but now reside in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Although I graduated with a Chemical Engineering degree, and later a degree in Politics and International Relations, my path led me to humanitarian work, where I worked for UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur for some 17 years.

Aside from this, I have also been blessed to raise a son who is on the spectrum, gifted and high-functioning. I have two younger, beautiful daughters and a loving and supportive spouse.

Before discovering Medium in August 2023, I was grappling with burn out from 7 years of vicarious trauma, listening to traumatic, first-hand accounts of asylum-seekers applying for refugee status under the UNHCR mandate. I was also recovering from my own traumatic episode working under a difficult…