My focus is an intersection of education, law and social culture.
I started an agency, Education for Autonomy, to create space for work I admire and respect to broadcast on a larger platform. I created a collective of information and people moving and shaking foundations of established institutions to transform lives.
I am a Maryland and California credentialed Teacher and a Maryland licensed Attorney. I grew up in Southern New Jersey and entered the University of Georgia in 1991. I transferred to Oglethorpe University, earning a degree in Middle School Education in 1996. After college I lived in Southern Mexico for two years, learned Spanish and taught English to kids and adults. In Mexico I began to comprehend the experience of Mexicans immigrating to the United States. Since returning home to the U.S. in 1998 I work to build alliances and connections to social movements dedicated to self determination, sovereignty and liberation of marginalized and historically oppressed people in the United States today.
I taught middle school in Howard County, Maryland and lived in Baltimore for almost four years. In 2001 I earned my Masters in Reading from Johns Hopkins University and a few months later I moved to Santa Cruz County, California until 2012. In California I was an alternative high school teacher in Watsonville, a teacher-union organizer with the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers and a volunteer advocate on issues relating to girl’s rights, juvenile justice, systemic racism, and public education. I co-founded the Watsonville Bike Shack Collective and GirlZpace.
In 2012 I moved to Washington, DC and began law school at the David A. Clarke School of Law. I was mentored by extraordinary civil rights lawyers with cutting edge experience in educational and civil rights litigation. I was a Student Attorney in the Housing and Consumer Law Clinic and the Juvenile Law and Special Education clinic. I developed my skills in legal research and writing. I won an award for Community Service at graduation and graduated from law school in 2015. I served as an Educational Legal Advocate with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender from 2015-2016.
Currently, I am the Lead Teacher for a Legal Studies program for high school students in Maryland and function as an Educational Advocate and Attorney focusing on K-12 students. I do private consultations in personal finance and student loan planning & literacy. I create trainings and content for specialized issues on a contract basis.
(See my paper on the educational rights of incarcerated youth on the homepage of this website.)
The “Speakers, Educators & Artists” promoted here can bring extraordinary work, wisdom and experience to your institution, organization, conference or business. Let’s build so that our ideas and movements become collective. So we build power.
Speaker fees are negotiable and sliding scale depending on your location, organizational mission and purpose of event.
I would love to hear from you.
Education For Autonomy 