Sustainable Storytelling with Story Sprouts LLC

Story Sprouts LLC develops sustainable storytelling.

Story Sprouts LLC values authentic storytelling to promote a world where everyone can thrive where they are and grow a deeper understanding of themselves and their community members. It values sustainability, both in seeking to be an environmentally friendly business and in prioritizing building capacity and taking meaningful rest to continue efforts into the long term future.

This website is hosted with Greek Geeks, web hosting platform that plants a tree for every customer and matches its energy usage, like from staff workstations and servers, three times what is used to power it. Ecosia is our primary search engine to plant trees with web searches. We choose to bank with a credit union dedicated to environmental sustainability, create graphics on a platform with dedicated sustainability programs, manufacture items through Eco-friendly printers, and never use generative AI.

Carter Hemion is the author of two poetry collections, SLT SHKR (2025) and Allergic to Sanity (2024) from Bottlecap Press. They were a freelance news reporter from 2019-2022 for print and digital publications and they have published short stories, poetry, and visual art in literary magazines. They have also shared their personal rare disease story in a number of articles and books.

As co-host of the Stripes of Solidarity podcast, Rare & Real, and a guest speaker on a number of other podcasts, Carter brings a dedication to authentic and honest storytelling with intentions to increase awareness and promote change around issues they care about.

Carter is also a public speaker with experience speaking for rare disease conferences, non-profit organizations, pharmaceutical companies, podcasts & radio shows, and a variety of webinars to share their knowledge and experiences with others.

On a daily basis, Carter works with organizations, institutions, agencies, and companies on uplifting community members’ stories to build empathy, connection, and care as a means to promote positive change.

Carter Hemion brings lived experience to a number of professional roles in patient advocacy including:

• FDA & CTTI Patient Engagement Collaborative Member
• Director of Operations at Immunocompromised Association
• Director of Advocacy & Accessibility and podcast co-host at Stripes of Solidarity
• Patient Expert in the cEDS Working Group of the International Consortium on EDS & HSD
• Department of Defense CDMRP Consumer Reviewer
• BMJ Peer Reviewer
• Research Assistant in rare & chronic illness-related social & behavioral research
• Young Adult Rare Representative Advisory Committee Member (2025), YARR & RDLA Member, Speakers Bureau member, Pride in Rare volunteer, and Leadership Academy graduate at the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases
• Patient Engagement Committee Member at International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders
• Rare Disease Diversity Coalition member
• NIH & FDA CURE ID Patient Engagement Taskforce Member

AI contributes to climate change with its carbon emissions, water and electricity use, generation of pollutants, and more, not to mention risks of spreading misinformation about climate issues. These issues disproportionately impact communities already being most harmed by climate change.

Generative AI platforms are frequently trained on copyrighted works, often without the knowledge or consent of creators, to create work that may closely resemble to copyrighted material. In support of writers, artists, and independent creators of all kinds, we do not ethically support this use of AI.

Incidents of harm from AI increase every year, including problems with discrimination & bias, privacy & security, socioeconomic & environmental problems, and many other issues.

In our commitment to sustainability, health equity, and supporting human content creators, we cannot in good faith justify contributing to these harms, especially when we are capable of learning new skills, collaborating with other communication experts, and doing the same good work without employing generative AI tools.