The 4 min read

Prior to working in the nonprofit sector, I honed my kitchen skills as a professional cook and pastry assistant at Michelin-renowned Chez Panisse in the Bay Area. When I wasn’t cooking, I was writing and performing original poetry in galleries, including the Oakland Museum of California in collaboration with SFMoMA.

After writing “Golden California”, a poetry collection exploring the harrowing landscapes of drought, I became a staunch advocate on behalf of marginalized communities that face the brunt of climate change and long standing racial and socioeconomic inequities. 

Having grown up in the rural Central Valley where my parents were immigrant farm workers for the first years of my life, I grew passionate about food equity and breaking cycles of generational poverty. After mastering my pie-making skills as Kitchen Manager at women-owned Three Babes Bakeshop, I made a pivot into education. I moved to Los Angeles to lead youth-focused programs in Title I schools throughout LA Unified as Program Manager at 826LA.

I built out the organization’s first Writers’ Room at Manual Arts High School in South Los Angeles, a program focused on bolstering students’ expository and creative writing skills and increasing college access for first generation students. I ran cross-functional projects that provided students with quality 1:1 attention from trained volunteers on life-changing assignments like college essays and personal narratives for student publications. 

As project lead and editor for 826LA’s Young Authors’ Book Project, I designed curriculum focused on collective histories and first person accounts of everyday life in South Central Los Angeles. I oversaw all steps leading to professionally published books filled with student stories including leading editorial teams, content development and proofing, and communications. 

In Through the Same Halls, students revitalized their neighborhood’s history through interviews with community elders and crafted their own journeys of persistence against systemic barriers. Sounds of Freedom, a collection of stories inspired by songs, sparked visions of just futures. 

These formative years in my career shaped my acumen to take on complex projects, engage with communities meaningfully, and zoom in and out of the big picture while also prioritizing on-the-ground work to create tangible impact. 

I pursued my Master’s in Education Policy and Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) with the goal to implement equity-focused initiatives in districts and organizations, and activate restorative approaches in schools to decrease youth incarceration. 

As a graduate student, I designed workbooks focused on positive youth identity development in collaboration with my peer and friend, Sophie D’Souza. Our work received the Harvard Radcliffe Institute Grant for “Freedom Dreaming Journals for Incarcerated Youth,” leading to the creation of Que Onda, a pilot program providing free social emotional learning resources for educators and youth advocates.

After graduation, I returned to HGSE as a Teaching Fellow for the T004 Ethnic Studies and Education course, led by the tenacious Dr. Christina “V” Villarreal, where I coached graduate students through coursework and the implementation of their capstone projects.

I joined the Equity Institute in 2022 to build on my passion for culturally sustaining and transformative education. As a content designer and facilitator, I worked with various school districts across New England states to build strategy around critical issues their schools faced. From mitigating bias to developing leaders’ cultural competencies, I created learning experiences that engaged participants in courageous conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion principles. These principles have been the foundation to solutions that have transformed educational practice, ensuring youth are met with care and the resources they and their families need to thrive. 

My focus now is supporting teams and leaders to utilize their superpowers, intuition, and expertise to unlock goals and strategy. I give structure to ambitious projects, design programs for learning and development, and measure growth and impact through data and stories.