I am a wife and a mom with over 30 years of experience as an educator. Our family has lived in Whittier for over 18 years. My youngest son attended East Whittier schools and graduated from La Serna High School.

My family comes from humble beginnings with a line of passionate educators. My grandmother immigrated to United States at 16 years old and soon decided that education was to be her pathway to success. Her commitment to her studies got her into the U.C.L.A, where she graduated with honors. She then vowed to dedicate her life to educating future generations.

She served as a high school language teacher and later as an adjunct professor at East L.A. College. She passed on her love for educating young people to her children and later to her grandchildren. All three of her children, including my mother, followed in her footsteps and pursued careers as teachers and school administrators. She instilled in all of us a love for learning. She’s the reason for what I do and she’s my constant inspiration.

I’ve had the opportunity to gain diverse experience in multiple roles, including an elementary school teacher, a literacy project director, and an elementary school principal. My focus was always to collaborate with parents, teachers, and staff to ensure the academic prosperity of our students. I always believed that it was important to build capacity in my schools by leaving them in better shape than when I arrived. By working together with my school communities I was able to consistently raise academic achievement for our students. The work I did was challenging and meaningful.

When I left the public school system and became an independent consultant, my focus shifted to encouraging the use of education technology in the classroom. Since 2010 I have worked with a tech companies, educational nonprofits, and several public schools by developing curriculum and strategic growth plans. During this time, I also worked closely with new and pre-service teachers to use social media resources and other digital technologies to support their teaching practice. It’s been fulfilling work, but over the years I’ve been drawn back to public school service. That’s why I’m running for the East Whittier City School Governing Board.

As a board member, I will bring a fresh perspective to the decision-making process that will improve conditions for students, teachers, and staff and better support parents. I will advocate for greater district transparency and board accountability. I will work with my colleagues to broaden access to educational resources to all students in the district. It will be my responsibility to work to ensure that when students leave our schools they have a strong foundation that will allow them to be successful in whatever endeavors they pursue. Let’s build our children’s future together!