I was that child: a newly arrived migrant diagnosed as learning-disabled. Simultaneously striving to learn to speak, read, and write – in English - I lucidly recall fighting my way through each word of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the first book I finished from cover to cover. The result of this pinnacle accomplishment was a growing determination and insatiability to finish this and every book I have read since.

In this way, through studied force of will coupled with support from dedicated educators, I beat the odds my origin story laid out for me to rise academically. I eventually matriculated with degrees from the University of California, Harvard, and Stanford where my studies focused on inclusive uses of emergent education technologies to support language and literacy development, with an emphasis on reading difficulties and disability, as well as the interconnections between dual-language use and ethnic identity.

Never having forgotten my own history as a disabled Latina scholar, I became powerfully motivated to understand the best ways to fully include all our children and maximize their learning potential. My commitment to serving the academic needs of disenfranchised students commenced at Stanford with my engagement in AmeriCorps educational equity reform at Title 1 schools. It continued with literacy and ESL work in Bay Area public libraries, teaching over 300 emerging adult readers and second language learners to read. It also included non-profit work with FIRST 5 California and Scholastic developing and implementing family literacy programs serving under-resourced immigrant communities.

While at UC Irvine, I concurrently worked as a Community Research Fellow and drafted my first-authored book for MIT Press: Voices on the Margins: Inclusive Education at the Intersection of Language, Literacy, and Technology. In my role as a Community Research Fellow, I worked closely with faculty and K-12 leadership across Orange County schools to investigate inclusive education and language and literacy best practices for linguistically and developmentally diverse learners across in-person and digital learning contexts. During this time, I also served as an educational media advisor and Research Fellow with PBS, as well as an education researcher with the UCI Digital Learning Lab.

I recently served as the Emerging Technologies Impact Fellow on detail to the U.S. Department of Education. In this capacity I develop national education policy and investigate emerging education trends and technologies for the Office of Educational Technology in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.

In addition, I continue to serve as a Ready to Learn Consultant Advisor for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In this role, I advise on various projects including research and development for Lyla in the Loop – a children’s animated series highlighting critical and computational thinking skills.

Today, too few of our developmentally and linguistically diverse children are afforded opportunities to achieve academic success and inclusion. They remain one of the last segregated groups in our education system. Even programs labeled “inclusive” often are only so in limited ways. My vision is to use my expertise in inclusive education, language, literacy, and technology to support the inclusion of diverse students across complex learning environments and disrupt the systems and narratives that place low expectations at the feet of our extraordinary students.

Learn more about my work!

To preorder my book, Voices on the Margins: Inclusive Education at the Intersection of Language, Literacy, and Technology, click here. 

Check out my latest completed project for the U.S. Department of Education here.

Learn more and stay tuned for the release of Lyla in the Loop here and here.