Bio
I received my B.A. in English, minor in Education from UCLA (2004), my M.Ed. from UCLA (2007), and my Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in Critical Gender Studies from UCSD (2023). With a passion for critical and emancipatory pedagogies, I spent 10 years teaching high school English, Social Studies, Physical Education, and Yoga in Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Beijing, and my hometown, San Diego prior to entering the PhD program. I was most impacted by teaching in alternative settings, which largely served foster, adjudicated, homeless, and refugee populations. This, along with being specially trained to teach yoga and mindfulness to populations who have experienced trauma, cultivated my passion for health and well-being, as well as healing from and dismantling the social structures that cause trauma. I am a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher (2015-2016, New Zealand) and also a 2020-2022 CTERIN Educating Teacher Educators (ETE) Fellow.
