Motivated by my own experiences in foster care, I have dedicated most of my career to serving youth most impacted by inequities and injustices of our country's child welfare, justice, and education systems. With a decade of experience in education and youth development programming, I've partnered with young people and communities to expand access to alternative workforce pathways that lead to educational attainment and community-sustaining employment. Today, I have the honor of working directly with programs all across the country to learn best practices, amplify opportunities, and innovate across across sectors to improve transitions to a thriving adulthood for systems-involved youth. I've always had a passion for research, policy, and fostering collective efforts to catalyze systems change. As a Gates Millennium Scholar, I graduated from Bushnell University in Oregon and began my career as an early childhood educator in bilingual classrooms. I went on to finish my master's in educational leadership and policy studies from Boston University, where focusing largely on issues of educational justice for emergent bilingual students in traditional school settings. In 2021, I completed my Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Washington's Leadership for Learning Program (L4L), where I explored the impacts of restorative justice practices in alternative education settings and used this data to help convince state and federal lawmakers to expand the availability of wrap-around funding for workforce development programs serving opportunity youth.
Listed skills include Curriculum Mapping, Strategic Planning, Instructional Feedback And Coaching, Curriculum Development, and 37 others.