My work starts from a stubbornly simple belief: neurodivergent and disabled students do not need to become someone else to deserve a future.

I am an educator, advocate, and program director focused on building learning environments where students are understood as whole people, not as collections of deficits, accommodations, or paperwork problems. My work is grounded in Critical Disability Theory, neurodiversity, and the practical reality that institutions often confuse “different” with “less capable.” I am interested in what happens when we stop asking students to prove they belong and start building systems that assume they do.

At Foothill College, I lead the Tools for Transition & Work program, a year-long college and career readiness program for neurodivergent students moving toward independent adulthood. TTW helps students build academic, social, employment, communication, and self-advocacy skills while developing a clearer sense of who they are and what kind of future they want. The goal is not to sand off every interesting edge until students look “normal.” The goal is to help them build real lives with real choices.

My interest in neurodiversity and disability education grew out of my own academic and professional path. I earned my undergraduate degree from UC Santa Cruz, then completed a Master of Arts in Teaching at the University of Southern California. I later earned a Master of Arts in Special Education with a focus on Autism Spectrum Disorder from Arizona State University, graduating with distinction. I am currently a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University, where my research focuses on the success gap for disabled students in community college.

Across my teaching, research, and advocacy, I keep coming back to the same central question: What would education look like if belonging was treated as a design requirement, not a reward students earn by hiding the parts of themselves that make other people uncomfortable?