I entered education wanting to be a math teacher. I saw a lot of ways that the education system disserved my family members and my friends and I was privileged in a place where things came to me a little bit more quickly. I had a lot of support, and I was able to succeed academically. I thought that math would be a way to help capture some of the loss of students in school who don't have role models who look like them or who understand things like them or who are self defeated in a lot of ways.

I applied to the University of San Francisco's program when I did because of the messages I heard and what people said about it and then what I saw around was here. There's a real community. You're doing work that's focused on addressing and inequity in education. Within higher education we focus on the structuring of access and
opportunity and what that looks like for different groups of students, particularly marginalized students. A lot of my work is focused on that group of students in particular. The opportunity to continue working with the brilliant students that come to USF and be a part of an institution that is only growing in its commitment to address issues of inequity.

What really drives me is imagining the individuals I have the privilege to work with and imagining them sitting with a student and knowing that they're going to be making good decisions. Knowing that what they help
each other learn within the learning context that I help develop.

My family is everything. I remember when I was graduating with my master's and my mentors - we were in Miami for a conference and my dad wanted to invite my professors over for dinner and cook and prepare this big meal and to show their gratitude and I just remember him being so proud and wanting to show them how proud he was and saying you know what means most to me about this is that she's doing this for us. She's doing this because she wants to make things better for us. I always remember that moment of wondering do they get it? Can you possibly get how much this means for my dad you know from their own context and knowing that there were limitations to that but that they were trying but just knowing how proud I was of my dad and how meaningful it was for him to say that.