I have been involved in education my whole life, having been a pre-school, elementary, and secondary teacher, as well as at teaching at the university level. I have a PhD in Urban Schooling from UCLA where I was a Linguistic Minority Research Institute Fellow and the recipient of a dissertation grant from the American Educational Research Association. Previously, I served on the board of a bilingual charter school in my local community, coordinated the secondary credentialing program at UC Irvine, and co-authored a book on careers in education. I am currently an assistant principal at OCSA and an adjunct professor at UCI's School of Education.