I am currently the Interim Dean of Institutional Effectiveness at Oxnard College, where I lead the college’s SLO, CLO, and ILO evaluation programs, manage the institution’s strategic planning process, and collaborate with faculty and classified staff to improve student outcomes across the college.
Before coming to Oxnard, I was a researcher in the Institutional Effectiveness Office at Moorpark College in 2023. From 2020 to 2022, I was the Ventura County Community College District’s Career & Technical Education Research Analyst. From 2018-2020, I was the Data + Information Specialist for the Social Sciences in the Center for Digital Liberal Arts at Occidental College in. I hold a PhD in Urban Education Policy from the University of Southern California, where my principal advisors were Patricia Burch and Guilbert C. Hentschke. I also hold an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a B.A. in Music History and Literature from St. Olaf College.
Prior to becoming a student at USC, I was an award-winning conductor and high school band director in Las Vegas, Nevada, where my ensembles consistently earned superior ratings at state and regional music festivals. I am strongly committed to improving the diversity of higher education, and I have spent the better part of the last twenty years working in and around educational opportunity programs. I have worked with education policymakers in three states to craft and implement high-impact legislation and education policy aimed squarely at creating more inclusive educational opportunities for marginalized and minoritized students from ethnically, racially, socioeconomically, and linguistically diverse communities.
My work at USC focused on addressing the opportunity gap between diverse urban populations and their suburban counterparts, paying particular attention to the ways that technology can help or hinder achievement, persistence, and matriculation in the public school system. My research has appeared in multiple edited volumes and scholarly journals, and I have presented my work at the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), and the World Educational Research Association (WERA). I have been an invited speaker at the University of California Berkeley, University of Southern California, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and via webcast in Georgia State University's Global Conversations in Doctoral Preparation lecture series.
In 2016, I was inducted into the Order of Areté, the University of Southern California's highest honor for graduate students. Members of the order demonstrate "significant depth and scope of responsibility in a campus or community leadership role... [and] uphold value and meaning over individual achievement." During the 2015-2016 academic year, I was awarded the prestigious Graduate School Endowed Fellowship by the Provost of the University of Southern California through a university-wide competitive selection process. Graduate School Endowed Fellowships support advanced doctoral students who show exceptional promise to make a lasting impact on the research community. Also in the spring of 2015, I was named a Noodle Innovation Scholar by Arizona State University, GSV Capital Management, and Noodle, Inc. in recognition of my work on private sector engagement in education markets. From 2012 to 2015, I was a Dean's Fellow of Urban Education Policy in the Rossier School of Education. I am a member of American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) and the interdisciplinary honor society Phi Kappa Phi. My full CV is available here.