I have been teaching high school for nine years, and this is my seventh year at Samohi. My first teaching jobs were in alternative education, including continuation school in Culver City and a thematically-integrated, project-based, global studies program in Pomona. I was even a substitute in juvenile hall.

Prior to becoming a teacher, I studied Sociology, Communications, and Chicana/o Studies at UCLA where I wrote for La Gente and UCLA Magazine. I spent a few years after graduation as a freelance writer/designer for non-profit organizations. To become a high school teacher, I went back to school at Cal State Dominguez Hills where I took numerous English and Education courses, earning my teaching credential in 2003. Since then I have continued my education at UCLA Extension, taking creative writing classes and at Cal State Dominguez Hills, where I am currently taking a Humanities course entitled "Literature and the Rights of Women"

Last summer, to prepare for Freshman Seminar, I participated in a Facing History and Ourselves Race and Membership institute and collaborated with other teachers to develop rigorous and meaningful learning experiences for students. I then participated in the on-line Holocaust and Human Behavior Institute. This past summer, I spent a week in Taos, New Mexico at a “Writing for Social Change” workshop with Demetria Martinez and a week in Prescott, Arizona at a poetry writing workshop with Marge Piercy. I have been accepted into the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles which begins in December -- I am very excited!