Bio/About

I was born in Detroit and grew up in California’s Central Valley. I live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Over the years, I’ve worked as a hospital clerk, union shop steward, radio producer and trainer (KPFA–Pacifica Radio’s Drama & Literature Department, Women’s Department, Public Affairs Department, and later with La Peña Cultural Center’s Radio Group), social researcher/community

scholar-educator, translator-interpreter (Spanish–English), events and conference organizer (local, national, and international), and as a poet, writer, and curator in the Bay Area literary community.

I’ve been active in many social change movements, always with an anti-racist and anti-oppression lens.

I design and teach poetry and prose workshops in English, Spanish, and Spanglish, and have developed curriculum for adults and youth around health and healing, social-emotional acuity, social power dynamics, and other complex issues. Recently, under the direction of my bilingual fifth-grade classroom, I designed poetry curriculum on sports, food, culinary arts, and colonization.

I’ve served on interdisciplinary doctoral committees in Narrative Psychology, Women’s Studies, Creative Writing, Cultural Studies, and Adult Sexuality Education. I was the founding director of The Edge of Each Other’s Battles Project, an organization that promoted participation of grassroots community scholars in academic conferences.

I’ve served as a peer reviewer for THE ORAL HISTORY REVIEW, THE PERMANENTE JOURNAL, and the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. In the past, I’ve been an active member of the American Educational Research Association, the Oral History Association, the American Studies Association, and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. I’ve organized and presented on panels at scholarly conferences in these fields.

I hold a BA in Creative Writing (graduated with distinction), an MA in Education with a Special Focus on Equity Issues, and a PhD in Ethnic and Cultural Studies. My scholarly research focused on the history and practice of anti-racism and diversity training programs. I’m also certified as a community mediator and served for several years on the ethics committee of the medical center where I worked. My writing has appeared in literary, scholarly, and political journals. My book of poems, HOME REMEDY, was published by Nomadic Press in 2017.

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My approach to teaching is student-centered, collaborative, intergenerational, and open to questions. I take my students seriously as writers and believe that poetry is, at its heart, a matter of paying attention. As your editor, I focus on clarifying your own voice. I am literate across disciplines, listen well, and can guide you toward coherent and beautiful expression. To work with me as an editor, we’ll begin with a phone or Zoom conversation. I’ll review a few pages of your writing to see if we’re a good fit. If so, we’ll agree on a timeline, payment, and prepare a simple contract.