My work as a professional educator

Professionally, I have spent more than 35 years in the field of education, first as a graduate student preparing for a teaching license and Masters of Education in Secondary Teaching English and Social Studies with Bilingual Crosscultural Language & Academic Development (BCLAD) certification, and then as a Masters Candidate in Teaching English as a Second Language (all at UCLA). Finally, after teaching high school in Salinas, CA, I was an international award doctoral student in Teacher Education at the University of Toronto, specializing in new/second language teaching and learning (the latter while teaching adult-level ESL classes).

After earning my Ph.D., for 24 of these years, I was a teacher of teachers, first at San Jose State University in California and then at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), in Greeley, where I taught for 20 years. I have been honored with various awards and recognitions doing this work. My former students are now working as teachers and administrators throughout the state of Colorado, including Poudre, Thompson, and other districts around the state.

I retired from UNC in July, 2020, having returned from intermittent visits to Brazil over a five-year period, first as a Teacher-in-Residence working with Brazilian public school English as a Foreign Language teachers, then as a Fulbright Distinguished Teaching fellow in 2018-19, and finally as a visiting international professor at Universidade Federal dos Vales de Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM). Since my retirement from UNC, I have served both as a regular and a full-time substitute teacher and as a Social Emotional Learning Specialist in Poudre and Thompson School Districts, in northern Colorado.”

My goal now is a pretty simple one, while at the same time wonderfully complicated: repaying the wonderful gifts I have been given in this life, both inside and outside schools and classrooms, by advocating for public schools that protect and preserve what is best about public education. I am more committed than ever to push hard for more equitable opportunities for all our kids, our grandkids, and the future of our country and world.

It is my intention to bring to bear all the background and varied perspectives that come with my diverse educational and professional experiences for meeting present and future challenges in our schools. This is my work as an education policy advocate!

I invite you to follow and join with me as I pursue this path . . .