Biography

I was born in San Francisco and brought up on the East Coast outside of Washington D.C. I earned my BA degree from Macalester College, a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. I majored in Spanish and minored in Geography. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to learn and use another language. At Macalester I was required to spend at least a year studying abroad and I chose to spend my junior year in South America. Decades after my time at Macalester, I am still thankful for the solid liberal arts education I received there. It is often said that the ability to read, write and think critically are crucial skills, and I am grateful that I spent four years honing those skills and taking advantage of the opportunities to learn, travel and use another language. I enjoy sharing my passion for words, language, literature and writing with my students. I firmly believe that, no matter a student’s future academic career, the ability to express oneself whether on the page, in person, in another language, or as a public speaker are keys to success.

After four years in NYC, I moved (on a whim) to go to Denmark to work for an NGO. I ended up spending several years living there learning Danish. I studied the language intensively and passed the Danish as a Foreign Language Proficiency Exam within 3 years.
In addition to my BA from Macalester I have an MS degree in Organization Development for the University of San Francisco. After working for several years in consulting, HR and recruiting I decided that was not the path for me and I made my way back to the humanities – my first love.

After graduating from college, I worked as a Trainer and Director of Training and Development at a non-profit educational and youth leadership development organization in New York City. After moving to Silicon Valley in 2015, I started volunteering as an adult literacy tutor for PAR (Partners In Reading); a program of the San Jose Public Library. I tutored adult learners for 5 years, helping them develop both their oral and written communication skills in English. From 2019-2022 I worked for Light of Knowledge Academy (LKA), an afterschool and weekend academy in Cupertino. I taught writing enrichment and children’s literature classes for students in 4th-11th grades and also took on some private tutoring students. I helped high school students with English assignments, literary analysis essays and SAT prep. I currently work part-time as an ESL Program Assistant for Read Santa Clara, the adult literacy program of the City of Santa Clara Public Library. I currently teach several small group English classes and tutor some adult learners one-on-one. Many of my learners are native Spanish speakers and all are recent refugees or immigrants to the United States.

As a teacher/tutor, I think it is important to develop a rapport with my students. I like to find out what their individual strengths and interests are and use this as a ‘jumping off point’ for our collaboration together. I always find that students are more engaged if they are working with subject matter that truly interests them. What do they want to know? What are they curious about? I plan lessons around their interests, whenever possible. I think I am skilled at drawing students out. I firmly believe that sound thinking goes hand in hand with excellent writing. I encourage students to think first, brainstorm, write and then revise as necessary. I tell them that a first draft is not supposed to be good!