About

Life is short and precious. I have no time to waste on inauthentic education that simply develops obedience or reinforces outdated ways of knowing. I live for prosocial education - education that develops more autonomous, self-disciplined, caring, creative, interdependent, future-forward human beings. 

I have a wide and varied background: 6+ years as a classroom teacher (including special ed and bilingual / ESL), 8 years as a parent-child developmental therapist and Floortime clinician, and 2+ years homeschooling my own fantastic, neurodivergent child. I also have experience as a community organizer, adult educator, and circle keeper.

Fun facts: I’ve been a parent for 16 years; I’m also a proud cat servant. I’m from Chicago, but I live in the Sonoran desert, where I love birding, hiking, biking, and swimming in mountain streams. I’m a former dance major and karaoke fanatic, so I love to get silly and infuse my work with music and movement. I’m an award-winning writer and public speaker, currently working on a historical fiction novel. I’m an education fanatic with 2 master’s degrees, one in Special Education, and one in Creative Writing. I’m always learning more through voracious reading, taking workshops, working with my mutual aid group, and taking part in grassroots education. 

Mental health is a top priority - I’ve spent most of my adult life in therapy, support groups, and using healing modalities like energy work, neuroplasticity meditation, and restorative / transformative justice circles. I strive to be tough on systems and gentle on people.

“You have to bootleg education… it’s not proper, but you do it anyway.”

-Myles Horton

A few of my educational, social, and therapeutic inspirations: Myles Horton; Paulo Freire and Theatre of the Oppressed; Mariame Kaba; Eve Ewing; Civil Rights-era freedom schools and modern-day versions like Chicago Freedom School; Jean Ayres; Stanley Greenspan; Latine and Indigenous practices of holistic educación, servingness, and funds of knowledge; and grassroots groups everywhere who co-create knowledge and build skills through collective, decentralized, and practice-based learning.