Creating access for underrepresented and at-risk students was my impetus for teaching. My teaching life has given me the opportunity to do just that. In all classes I focus on mechanisms to help articulate and develop original thinking, form community, and practice pleasure in the grace of language. To get a sense of my online teaching presence check out this short video on experiential writing.

After a pandemic pause, I returned to teaching by joining faculty at San José State University. In 2020 it was named the most transformative college in the United States by Money magazine. It is the premier public university in Silicon Valley and boasts a highly diverse population. Here I work with first year students, easing and invigorating their integration into university life. My class “Writing into the Shift” focuses on roles of women, environmental change, social justice, and the world we want to live in. It is designed to support peer connection and collaboration. Working together helps us all succeed.

Up through the early pandemic, I worked at what U.S. News & World Report calls “the best public university in the world,” UC Berkeley. My accelerated writing classes were primarily composed of underrepresented and multilingual students who needed extra support, and in my classes they gained the skills to flourish. 100% of my students in my last classes said they would “recommend this instructor to others.” The seminars supported retention and graduation rates.

Over an 11-year period I worked at University of California (UC) Merced and Holy Names University (HNU). Both of these universities are rated Hispanic Serving Institutions and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions in the U.S. Department of Education List of Minority Serving Institutions. I taught primarily hybrid developmental and academic writing in UC Merced’s Merritt Writing Program for six years and was awarded continuing lecturer status for excellence in supporting student learning. HNU invited me to direct their graduate writing program and promoted me from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor noting curriculum I authored that supported diverse populations.

Through 2021 I developed and lead a Memoir to College Workshop series for Cinnamon Girl. It provides young women of color with a reservoir of narratives for successful college and fellowship applications.

MAIN UNIVERSITY TEACHING

California State University, San Jose, 2022-present
Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature

University of California, Berkeley, 2019-2020
Lecturer in the College Writing Programs and Fall Program for Freshman

Holy Names University, Oakland, 2014-2019
The Writer’s Craft Director, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor

University of California, Merced, 2008-2014
Lecturer in the Merritt Writing Program

University of Windsor, 2005-2006
Visiting Writing Program Director

California State University, Maritime, 2004-2005 and 2007-2008
Lecturer in Culture and Communication

In addition to my main teaching positions I taught developmental, transfer-level, and graduate classes at Berkeley City College, Merritt College, the College of Marin, Foothill College, Santa Clara University and Johns Hopkins University (CTY).

For a full list of classes taught go here.