I earned my degree in Rhetoric, with a focus on public discourse, from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001. I then completed my MA in English, with a specialization in TESOL, at San Francisco State University in December 2004. My teaching career began in the San Francisco Bay Area at Foothill College and Cañada College. In 2006, I accepted my first overseas position at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Subsequent teaching posts included Qatar University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. I am currently a senior lecturer with the Language and Culture Center at Duke Kunshan University in China.