CURRENTLY

In May 2021, I became co-leader of the Santa Barbara County Youth Poet Laureate Program.

In Fall 2016, I began work as the Director of the Communication Lab at Santa Barbara City College. In this role I direct the activities of the lab, and provide a variety of instructional support services to students enrolled in Communications classes.

In Spring 2017, I became an affiliate faculty member at Antioch Santa Barbara in their MFA program for Writing & Contemporary Media.

In Summer 2016, I became a UCSB Fellow and Teacher-Consultant of the South Coast Writing Project. The South Coast Writing Project is an affiliated site of the National Writing Project and the California Writing Project. As a SCWriP Teacher-Consultant, I am available to consult on curriculum and to provide classroom visits and inservice presentations.

I participated in the 2016 Summer Institute in Composition in Critical Literacy, and my TIW (Teacher Inquiry Workshop) at the institute focused on developing my mobile, public art project, The Poetry Booth. To learn more about The Poetry Booth, click here. In 2018 I participated in the Advanced Summer Institute to continue developing this resource. If you are interested in having me visit your classroom, school, or group, please contact me.

PREVIOUSLY

From Fall 2010 – Fall 2015, I coordinated the Writing Center at Santa Barbara City College (recently named the #1 Community College in the Nation). In this role I oversaw tutor-training, created resources and curriculum for tutoring and tutor-training, facilitated outreach to the campus community about the services available to students through the Writing Center, and developed and lead Writing Skills workshops. My goal was to support students by creating opportunities for learning and empowerment through writing and self-expression. I was invested in developing and refining a tutoring practice and tutor-training program that is grounded in the work of thinkers like Paulo Friere and bell hooks.

To learn more about the approach to tutoring we practiced in the Writing Center, please view our presentation, “Learning Centered Practice at the Santa Barbara City College Writing Center. ”

You can learn more about the Santa Barbara City Writing Center here. 

Here are some pictures of the outreach displays & engagement areas I created for the SBCC Writing Center.

Poets’ House Display for National Poetry Month

Community Writing Space

Community Writing Space

Community Writing Space

Poetry Writing Station

Writing Center Resources

I’ve been involved in college-level education since 1998, when I began my graduate studies in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. After completing my M.A., I taught creative writing and composition courses at Johns Hopkins, Loyola University in Maryland, and the Community College of Baltimore County. In 2001 I relocated to central Texas to pursue my M.F.A. in poetry at Texas State University. At Texas State University I taught writing classes in the English department. After relocating to Santa Barbara, I began tutoring at the SBCC Writing Center and taught courses for the SBCC English Department. In 2010, I began working full-time as the Writing Center Coordinator.

In addition to my work with college students, I’ve taught middle and high school students, most notably at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and the Katherine Anne Porter Young Writers Program. Before beginning graduate school, I worked as a Teaching Assistant in toddler and primary classrooms for the Montessori Society of Central Maryland.

I consider education to be my life’s work, and I feel very grateful to have collaborated with diverse groups of learners and writers from a variety of backgrounds and skill levels.

Courses Taught (selected)

College Courses 

• Fundamentals of Composition
• Composition and Reading
• College Research Skills
• College Writing I
• College Writing II
• Developmental Writing
• Effective Writing
• Introduction to Fiction and Poetry I
• Introduction to Fiction and Poetry II
• The Teenager in Literature: An Exploration of the Archetype and a Writing Workshop

K-12

• Writing Analysis and Persuasion
• Crafting the Essay
• Writing and Imagination
• The Writing Process
• Creative Writing Workshop
• A Twelve-Week Semester Course and a Summer One Month Writing Intensive. (or How To Get 12 High School Students to Write a Book about Going to College)