Professional Experience

Education International (EI)

As a Research, Policy, and Advocacy Intern I collaborated with EI colleagues on the publication of A Union Right Manual: Human and Trade with Union Rights. For my second project, I conducted interviews of national associations on their efforts to defend the rights and status of Educational Support Personnel (ESP) and provided a report for other national affiliates to learn how they can support ESPs based on the findings.

National Education Association (NEA)

At NEA as a Campaigns and Election Specialist, I strategized and checked-in on the progress of the 2022 and 2023 Campaign Cycle in weekly staff meetings. In the Fall, I tracked school board races and NEA-endorsed candidates using excel, Civics, AVCC, and Ad Impact. In weekly Threat and Opportunity meetings, I reported on Anti-Public Education PAC’s influence on elections, State/Federal LGBTQ+ Legislation, State/Federal Voter Rights Legislation, State/Federal Immigration Legislation, and State/Federal Gun Legislation. Lastly, I used VAN to organize and host weekly phone banking events with NEA members.

This Spring, I planned a series of training sessions for State Affiliate PAC Captains to strategize how to improve outcomes and collaborated on a series of training sessions for state and local affiliates to learn how they can become active in school board races.

Public Narrative

As a student in Public Narrative, I coached my classmates through a series of individual sessions on their Public Narrative (Story of Self, Us and Now) by applying the disciplines researched by a diverse pool of scholars, such as Marshall Ganz. Mid-semester, I inspried others through my story to make a choice, construct an identity, and take action. In the second part of the course, I diagnosed leadership challenges drawn from my personal experiences by using the empathetic bridge.

Coaching with Equity in Mind

In this course, I planned and led a series of individual coaching sessions using researched-based coaching structures to engage my coachee in dialogue around identity, implicit bias, privilege, and resilience to articulate a clear and compelling "Why" Statement.

Organizing: People, Power, Change

In this seminar, I facilitated a series of trainings that developed the teams shared purpose, team roles, organizing sentence, map of actors, and set goals for the campaign. As a team, when developing our campaign tactics and outline for our organizing consultation we took into account the Cambridge Education Associations' desires to improve their member engagement by organizing members around a state legislative priority.

Using Data in Organizations

Evaluated the conditions of two school districts to improve learning using accurate and ethically collected data.

Negotiations Workshop

In this scenario based course, I used practitioner-focused frameworks, tools, and skills to effectively manage negotiations in a variety of settings.

Introduction to Policy Making in Action

Through a simulation of the Federal H.E.L.P. Committee, I was the Teacher Union lobbyist, I lobbied for association priorities on a bill establisihing standards for the use of seclusion and restraint in schools.

How People Learn

In this Harvard Graduate School of Education foundation course, I analyzed field studies from the perspective of a practitioner confronting problems of practice. To resolve the issues at hand, I applied research-based solutions in a report (Problem of Practice and Design Proposal). This report consisted of recommended learning processes to analyze learning experiences, policies, organizational changes, and other interventions.

Leading Change

In this second foundation course, I applied research to improve organizations and constituent outcomes at the meta/system level, organization level, teams level, and micro/individual level. All this work was accomplished with commitment to equity, diversity and collaboration in mind.

Evidence

Consulted Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) on their Teaching at the Right level intervention and provided CMS with descriptive, qualitative, and quantitative data to justify our recommendations.

Legislative Action Team Co-Chair

Lead meetings to plan advocacy events, organize members to take action and inform members on current issues.

Congressional Contact Committee

Maintained contact with federal legislators to inform them on NEA/NJEA's stance on federal and state legislative priorities.

REAL Team 6 Equity Organizer (RT6)

Applied my tactical methods training to organize members on eliminating edTPA as a certification requirement.

Spanish Teacher

As a Spanish teacher at Hightstown High School, I served as a member of the department and a go-to resource supporting overall planning for various courses. My specialization was collaborating with the Spanish 2 and 3 team on curriculum pacing, instructional strategies, assessments, and data analysis to optimize content delivery.

During the COVID-19 shutdown, I transitioned to virtual instruction and designed digital material, resources, and tools to effectively deliver content.

Division of Teaching and Learning Intern

At the New Jersey Department of Education, I implemented New Jersey's Student Learning Standards with the goal of students becoming college and career-ready as they graduate K-12 by working on the Early Childhood Education Marketing Gap Analysis. I also collaborated on career readiness and partnership initiatives to innovate and support educators and students. Furthermore, I developed community outreach resources such as PowerPoints and brochures in Spanish on the New Jersey Seal of Biliteracy.

NJEA PAC Operating Committee

As the elections approached in New Jersey, I supported a team of union leaders in endorsing candidates who were or had the potential of being friends of education.

MCEA Representative Council

As a representative, I led affiliate initiatives and maintained a close working relationships with those in Mercer County and the state.

Legislative Action Team High School Representative

Educated members on how to take action on current state and federal issues, participate in campaigns, and PAC fundraisers.

Board Member of Community Outreach for PACE- Personalized Academic Coaching for Everyone

With the lens of a former educator, I pushed forth the mission of the organization by training mentors on how to provide the appropriate services, and making partner organizations aware of our services.

Rise Community Service Partnership Summer Academic Enrichment Director/Assistant Director/Nutrition Instructor

Through my roles, I oversaw the daily operations of the summer camp program, planned the 6-week schedule, and oversaw all the operations.

Clinical Student Intern

Designed compelling content and explained complex concepts in an easily understood manner.