Professional Roots
After earning an Associate of Arts degree in Agriculture-Forestry at Glendale Community College and finishing my Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Natural Resources Management/Public Administration and a minor in Geology at Northern Arizona University, I achieved my long-time dream of working as a park ranger. I worked for a number of years with Arizona State Parks and the National Park Service. I spent a great deal of time on the Colorado River working at both Lake Havasu and Bucksin Mountain State Parks. In addition, I worked as an intern at Riordan Mansion State Park and Sunset Crater, Wupatki, and Saguaro National Monuments. I am also proud to say that in 1981, I became the first female park ranger to be employed at Catalina State Park, working with my colleagues Neil Donkersley, Gary Kuhn, Mike Edgington, and Dan Crangle on the Park's original ranger crew!
I loved being a ranger, but most especially, I loved the interpretive aspect of the positions I held. I enjoyed participating in outreach to public school students, leading hikes, and presenting campfire programs. It is no wonder that I wound up working in the field of education!
Throughout my career in education, which now spans over three decades, I have chosen to accept positions that have allowed me to continually challenge and expand my abilities while affording me the opportunity to be exposed to variance in experiences and perspectives within the realm of education at a global level. My teaching assignments, academic appointments, and academic fellowships have supported the development of a full appreciation and understanding of the education process from early childhood through post-secondary institutions at the local, regional, national, and global level. In fact, my career has led me to learning opportunities and K-12, community college, and university teaching positions on the high deserts of the Navajo Nation, to the barrios of Tucson, to the western shore of the Colorado River, to the mountains of Flagstaff, to the ancient communities of the Anatolian Peninsula, to Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, to the west valley of metropolitan Phoenix, all the way to the rolling hills of Victoria’s Yarra Valley, where I served for a year as Arizona’s International Teaching Fellow to Australia. Most recently, it has found me working in the Sonoran desert below the rocky outcroppings of Baboquivari Peak.
My Entry into the Field of Education
In 1985, with the encouragement of my friend, Bill Watt, I decided to leave my position with Arizona State Parks to gain the requisite education to qualify for the Information and Education Program Manager position with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. I went back to school and earned a post-baccalaureate teaching certificate from the University of Arizona in 1986. Unfortunately, the state of Arizona was in the throes of an economic recession, and Arizona Game and Fish eliminated the Information and Education Program Manager position, and my Park Ranger position with Arizona State Parks was indefinitely frozen. I was out of a job!
My Work as an Elementary Educator
I decided to pursue a teaching position with the teaching certificate I had earned, and ended up becoming an elementary teacher with Sunnyside School District, teaching in a 6th grade classroom at Liberty Elementary School. (Imagine that, the teacher’s worst nightmare went on to become... a teacher!) That first year was tough, but I shared a classroom with twenty-seven of the sweetest and most amazing children I have ever known. Those exceptional youngsters taught me so very much that year, not the least of which was acceptance, affirmation, and how important a teacher can be in the lives of her students. I loved teaching and decided to remain in the profession that I had come to love.
The following year, I accepted a teaching position with Wallace Middle School in the Parker, Arizona School District. My second year teaching found me working with a wonderfully diverse group of children whose love of learning was extremely gratifying. The children in this 4th grade class represented the diverse cultures of the region. I worked with children whose parents owned and worked in the resorts along the Colorado river, children who lived on the Colorado River Indian Tribes Reservation and whose heritages included the Chemehuevi, Apache, Mojave, Navajo, and Hopi cultures, children whose parents were migrant farm workers and whose time spent in my classroom ended as crops were harvested and their families moved on, and children who lived on the farms of the more rural areas of La Paz County. This was my first opportunity to work with a multilingual, multicultural group of students, and I loved it! I
In 1989, I returned to Sunnyside School District where I worked in a bilingual 3rd grade classroom and faced the challenges and reaped the tremendous rewards of working with English Language Learners. As in my previous two classrooms, I found this classroom filled with sweet, loving students who were eager to learn and who were equally thrilled to help me learn. It was a pleasure working with both the children and their families, who dearly valued the educational opportunities their children were experiencing.
From 1991 through 1997, I was employed with Flagstaff Unified School District, where I first worked at Leupp Public School, which is located in the small town of Leupp on the Navajo Nation. The children with whom I worked hold a very special place in my heart, as do their parents and the members of this community. Perhaps more than any other teaching position I have held, my work in Leupp most directly impacted my career path and my academic trajectory. Working with this wonderful group of children and the very insightful colleagues of the school, for the first time I began to think of education in terms that transcended the curriculum. I also worked at South Beaver Elementary School, which was located across the street from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Once again, I found myself working with extremely diverse groups of students in a second grade classroom. This time, in addition to extreme cultural and linguistic diversity, my students exhibited extremes in experiential, cultural, and ability backgrounds. What an excellent experience! I loved working with this wonderful population, and feel that I learned as much (and probably more) from my students as they did from me!
In 1995, I was gifted with a rare honor that provided one of the most memorable years of my life. I was chosen to represent the educators of our state as Arizona's International Teaching Fellow for the year. I spent the year teaching, lecturing, and studying in the state of Victoria, Australia. I worked with children at Yering Primary School, a two-room country schoolhouse in the Yarra Valley, which is located east of Melbourne. My class consisted of twelve students ranging in age from four to seven years old. This unparalleled professional experience changed my life forever, and provided the context for my own personal and professional reflection on education at the global level. I often think of my colleagues at the school and the lovely children with whom we worked. I am eternally grateful for all they taught me about teaching, learning, and culture-based educational practices.
My Career Path in Higher Education
Throughout my career in education, which now spans over three decades, I have chosen to accept positions that have allowed me to continually challenge and expand my abilities while affording me the opportunity to be exposed to variance in experiences and perspectives within the realm of education at a global level. My teaching assignments, academic appointments, and academic fellowships have supported the development of a full appreciation and understanding of the education process from pre-school through post-secondary institutions at the local, regional, national, and global level. In fact, my career has led me to learning opportunities and K-12, community college, and university teaching positions on the high deserts of the Navajo Nation, to the barrios of Tucson, to the western shore of the Colorado River, to the mountains of Flagstaff, to the ancient communities of the Anatolian Peninsula, to Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, to the west valley of metropolitan Phoenix, all the way to the rolling hills of Victoria’s Yarra Valley. Most recently, it has found me working in in the Sonoran desert in below the rocky outcroppings of two very special mountains, Baboquivari Peak and Kitt Peak.
In 1997, my career brought me to an instructional faculty position with Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, where I taught for 20 years. I spent my first 11 years at the Downtown Campus teaching ESL, working as the lead faculty member in ESL and as the Department Chair of World Languages. These were very special years, spent working with wonderful students from diverse linguistic, cultural, national, and experiential backgrounds. I loved my students, from whom I honestly learned more than I could have ever imagined.
During the following 9 years, I worked in Pima Community College’s Teacher Education Program at the Community and Desert Vista Campuses helping to prepare students for careers in the field of Education. Not only was I able to apply my expertise in Special Education, Elementary Education, Science Education, and Curriculum and Instruction, but I was also able to share my experience as an elementary teacher and special educator with my students. I especially cherished these years because of the amazing students with whom I worked. I am proud to say that after working with some of the finest pre-service teachers in our country, I can adamantly rebut the detractors of public education when they complain that the best and the brightest no longer enter the field of education. The students with whom I have had the privilege to work are living proof that the detractors are oh, so WRONG! I am privileged to work with the brightest and best every day of my life!
Working with the outstanding students of Pima Community College was an incredibly rewarding experience of which I am very proud. However, after two decades at the College, I felt it was time to expand my professional experiences in higher education beyond Pima and began to look for opportunities that would further challenge me and allow me to grow as an individual and a professional.
In 2017, I was so very fortunate to be offered a faculty appointment with Estrella Mountain Community College, where I worked in the Teacher Education Institute with pre-service educators, helping them to prepare of careers as teaching professionals. I met so many warm, supportive colleagues during my time at the College, and worked with many outstanding pre-service educators as they studied child development and elementary education with me. It was fun going back to the west side of metropolitan Phoenix, where I was raised, and I was honored to be a member of the faculty. However, when a position in Education came open at a tribal college on the Tohono O’odham Nation, I knew that it was time to put my education, experiential background, and research agenda to practical use! So, the following year, I accepted a faculty appointment with Tohono O’odham Community College and finally realized my goal of working with an Indigenous community to develop culture-based curriculum that strengthens traditional language and culture, bolsters individual and community well-being, supports tribal sovereignty and self-determination, and prepares young people to take charge of their destiny.
In my current position with Tohono O’odham Community College, I am charged with helping our pre-service teachers develop the knowledge and skills that will prepare them to serve the children of the Tohono O’odham Nation. At a time when federal and state governments, as well as many mainstream communities in America, are turning their backs on public schools and failing to support the education of our country’s most valuable resource, its children, the Tohono O’odham have recognized the vital role that a community-based, public supported education plays in strengthening communities, in promoting community values and ideals, in helping children recognize and achieve their full potentials, and in ensuring that future generations are well-prepared to be active, participatory, supportive members who engage in and serve their tribal communities.
In each of the professional positions I have held, I have learned to value, affirm, and positively respond to the wonderfully rich diversity represented in educational communities. The insights I have gained concerning the various aspects of cultural, social, experiential, and intellectual interactions represented in learning environments have bolstered my passion for education and made me an even greater supporter of public education at all levels and, most especially, community colleges.
I am a multi-faceted, multi-talented person. My background is diverse, and has prepared me to assume positions of academic leadership that draw on a wide range of workforce and academic experiences. I actually started out, many years ago, on a very different life path. After graduating from Maryvale High School, I enrolled at my local community college, Glendale Community College. With the support of so many excellent instructors and student service professionals, I graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in Agriculture and transferred to Northern Arizona University, where I earned a degree in Natural Resources Management and Public Administration. I went on to become a park ranger and was one of the first women in this state to ever do so. In fact, I was the first female ranger ever assigned to Catalina State Park, where I served on the Park’s first ranger crew prior to its opening to the public. As a ranger with expertise in interpretation, I dedicated myself to educating the public, a responsibility that I dearly loved. My fields of expertise ranged from ecology and anthropology to boating laws and safety. I chose to work in parks across the state of Arizona that allowed me to hone my interpersonal and interpretive skills as well as my leadership abilities. It was through my first career in Natural Resources Management, working as a ranger in the Arizona State Parks system, that I gained a tremendous breadth of managerial and leadership experience by performing a wide range of duties that prepared me to be a fair, reasonable, inclusive leader with a collegial, collaborative, and consultative management style. Through my work for the Parks Department, I developed the ability to utilize informed, strategic processes in shared decision-making, in short- and long-term planning, and in the development and implementation of consistent, equitable, and ethical policies, practices, and processes.
It was my desire to become Arizona Game and Fish Department’s educational outreach coordinator that brought me to the field of Education. The position required that I obtain a teaching credential; so, like many before me, I began my pathway to teacher certification as a student at a local college, Pima Community College. In 1982, I enrolled in several courses that would allow me to begin earning a teaching certificate. The employees of the college were both helpful and encouraging, and my instructors were top-notch. From the moment I walked into my first teaching methods class, I recognized that I had a new calling and a new passion – education.
When I needed to bolster my education, it was a community college that opened its welcoming doors to me and became my portal to a new career, one that has taken me on an incredible, life-long adventure and has led to personal and professional opportunities I never dreamed possible. I owe a great deal to community colleges and the communities that create, nurture, support, and sustain them. For more than twenty years, as a committed instructor and faculty leader, I have chosen to dedicate myself to working as a community college educator to support the community college mission AND communities that embrace their colleges. Throughout my tenure as a college instructor, I assumed positions of leadership at the department, campus, and college level, as well as within the community, building strong interpersonal relationships, networks of support, and cherished friendships while developing additional abilities that support my leadership and managerial skills. I am proud to say that I have been highly regarded by students and colleagues alike, and that, on a regular basis, have been recognized and affirmed as a trusted, cooperative, inclusive educator and educational leader.
Professional Goals
Over the course of my professional careers, I have held positions of leadership. As a Natural Resources Manager and Park Ranger for the state of Arizona, I supported the management of resources and personnel in the parks to which I was assigned. I wrote and managed a number of successful grants for improvements on the parks. As the Lead Faculty Member in both English as a Second Language and Education, as well as the Department Chair of World Languages and Education, I have been groomed and mentored for leadership roles within the college. I have assumed leadership positions with increasingly complex managerial and administrative related responsibilities within multi-campus, multi-faceted institutions of higher education. In addition, since 2007, I have served on the governing board of a public charter high school in Tucson, Sky Islands High. As a board member, I have engaged in even more complex institutional processes and procedures, while assuming tremendous accountability as a steward of public funds and resources. In my affiliation with Sky Islands, I have gained a deeper understanding of and commitment to ethical, legal, fiscal, academic, and curricular accountability. Perhaps more than in any previous position, this appointment has prepared me to better understand and the complex and extensive duties of a curricular leader.
As my career progresses, I aspire to assume even more complex duties as a curricular leader as part of a collaborative curricular team. I offer a rich and varied educational background from which to draw in developing, delivering, and improving cutting-edge educational opportunities for those who wish to learn.
I recently completed my doctoral program of studies at the University of Arizona, where I focused on Indigenous Education and curriculum in support of Indigenous language and culture sustainability and tribal sovereignty and self-determination. It is fitting that in my work at Tohono O'odham Community College, I am helping to prepare Indigenous teachers who will help their nation reclaim education and Indigenize the curriculum that will be followed in the schools of the Tohono O'odham Nation. I feel as if I am one of the luckiest people alive!
My Commitment to the Field of Education
As this page suggests, I am, and always have been, a public servant. I am committed to the highest standards of working for the common ideals of society and for social justice. I have chosen to accept positions with agencies and institutions populated by stewards of the future. Professionals in these institutions invest in the resources of the present to ensure a brighter future for us all. As a park ranger, I worked to conserve, protect, and preserve the state’s natural, historic, recreational, and scenic resources, not only for our children, but also for many future generations of our children’s children. As a public school teacher and a college instructor, I have worked diligently to support our students and their success. In supporting the hopes, the dreams, and the goals of our students, I am investing in not only their futures, but in our collective future as well.
After earning an Associate of Arts degree in Agriculture-Forestry at Glendale Community College and finishing my Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Natural Resources Management/Public Administration and a minor in Geology at Northern Arizona University, I achieved my long-time dream of working as a park ranger. I worked for a number of years with Arizona State Parks and the National Park Service. I spent a great deal of time on the Colorado River working at both Lake Havasu and Bucksin Mountain State Parks. In addition, I worked as an intern at Riordan Mansion State Park and Sunset Crater, Wupatki, and Saguaro National Monuments. I am also proud to say that in 1981, I became the first female park ranger to be employed at Catalina State Park, working with my colleagues Neil Donkersley, Gary Kuhn, Mike Edgington, and Dan Crangle on the Park's original ranger crew!
I loved being a ranger, but most especially, I loved the interpretive aspect of the positions I held. I enjoyed participating in outreach to public school students, leading hikes, and presenting campfire programs. It is no wonder that I wound up working in the field of education!
Throughout my career in education, which now spans over three decades, I have chosen to accept positions that have allowed me to continually challenge and expand my abilities while affording me the opportunity to be exposed to variance in experiences and perspectives within the realm of education at a global level. My teaching assignments, academic appointments, and academic fellowships have supported the development of a full appreciation and understanding of the education process from early childhood through post-secondary institutions at the local, regional, national, and global level. In fact, my career has led me to learning opportunities and K-12, community college, and university teaching positions on the high deserts of the Navajo Nation, to the barrios of Tucson, to the western shore of the Colorado River, to the mountains of Flagstaff, to the ancient communities of the Anatolian Peninsula, to Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, to the west valley of metropolitan Phoenix, all the way to the rolling hills of Victoria’s Yarra Valley, where I served for a year as Arizona’s International Teaching Fellow to Australia. Most recently, it has found me working in the Sonoran desert below the rocky outcroppings of Baboquivari Peak.
My Entry into the Field of Education
In 1985, with the encouragement of my friend, Bill Watt, I decided to leave my position with Arizona State Parks to gain the requisite education to qualify for the Information and Education Program Manager position with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. I went back to school and earned a post-baccalaureate teaching certificate from the University of Arizona in 1986. Unfortunately, the state of Arizona was in the throes of an economic recession, and Arizona Game and Fish eliminated the Information and Education Program Manager position, and my Park Ranger position with Arizona State Parks was indefinitely frozen. I was out of a job!
My Work as an Elementary Educator
I decided to pursue a teaching position with the teaching certificate I had earned, and ended up becoming an elementary teacher with Sunnyside School District, teaching in a 6th grade classroom at Liberty Elementary School. (Imagine that, the teacher’s worst nightmare went on to become... a teacher!) That first year was tough, but I shared a classroom with twenty-seven of the sweetest and most amazing children I have ever known. Those exceptional youngsters taught me so very much that year, not the least of which was acceptance, affirmation, and how important a teacher can be in the lives of her students. I loved teaching and decided to remain in the profession that I had come to love.
The following year, I accepted a teaching position with Wallace Middle School in the Parker, Arizona School District. My second year teaching found me working with a wonderfully diverse group of children whose love of learning was extremely gratifying. The children in this 4th grade class represented the diverse cultures of the region. I worked with children whose parents owned and worked in the resorts along the Colorado river, children who lived on the Colorado River Indian Tribes Reservation and whose heritages included the Chemehuevi, Apache, Mojave, Navajo, and Hopi cultures, children whose parents were migrant farm workers and whose time spent in my classroom ended as crops were harvested and their families moved on, and children who lived on the farms of the more rural areas of La Paz County. This was my first opportunity to work with a multilingual, multicultural group of students, and I loved it! I
In 1989, I returned to Sunnyside School District where I worked in a bilingual 3rd grade classroom and faced the challenges and reaped the tremendous rewards of working with English Language Learners. As in my previous two classrooms, I found this classroom filled with sweet, loving students who were eager to learn and who were equally thrilled to help me learn. It was a pleasure working with both the children and their families, who dearly valued the educational opportunities their children were experiencing.
From 1991 through 1997, I was employed with Flagstaff Unified School District, where I first worked at Leupp Public School, which is located in the small town of Leupp on the Navajo Nation. The children with whom I worked hold a very special place in my heart, as do their parents and the members of this community. Perhaps more than any other teaching position I have held, my work in Leupp most directly impacted my career path and my academic trajectory. Working with this wonderful group of children and the very insightful colleagues of the school, for the first time I began to think of education in terms that transcended the curriculum. I also worked at South Beaver Elementary School, which was located across the street from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Once again, I found myself working with extremely diverse groups of students in a second grade classroom. This time, in addition to extreme cultural and linguistic diversity, my students exhibited extremes in experiential, cultural, and ability backgrounds. What an excellent experience! I loved working with this wonderful population, and feel that I learned as much (and probably more) from my students as they did from me!
In 1995, I was gifted with a rare honor that provided one of the most memorable years of my life. I was chosen to represent the educators of our state as Arizona's International Teaching Fellow for the year. I spent the year teaching, lecturing, and studying in the state of Victoria, Australia. I worked with children at Yering Primary School, a two-room country schoolhouse in the Yarra Valley, which is located east of Melbourne. My class consisted of twelve students ranging in age from four to seven years old. This unparalleled professional experience changed my life forever, and provided the context for my own personal and professional reflection on education at the global level. I often think of my colleagues at the school and the lovely children with whom we worked. I am eternally grateful for all they taught me about teaching, learning, and culture-based educational practices.
My Career Path in Higher Education
Throughout my career in education, which now spans over three decades, I have chosen to accept positions that have allowed me to continually challenge and expand my abilities while affording me the opportunity to be exposed to variance in experiences and perspectives within the realm of education at a global level. My teaching assignments, academic appointments, and academic fellowships have supported the development of a full appreciation and understanding of the education process from pre-school through post-secondary institutions at the local, regional, national, and global level. In fact, my career has led me to learning opportunities and K-12, community college, and university teaching positions on the high deserts of the Navajo Nation, to the barrios of Tucson, to the western shore of the Colorado River, to the mountains of Flagstaff, to the ancient communities of the Anatolian Peninsula, to Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, to the west valley of metropolitan Phoenix, all the way to the rolling hills of Victoria’s Yarra Valley. Most recently, it has found me working in in the Sonoran desert in below the rocky outcroppings of two very special mountains, Baboquivari Peak and Kitt Peak.
In 1997, my career brought me to an instructional faculty position with Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, where I taught for 20 years. I spent my first 11 years at the Downtown Campus teaching ESL, working as the lead faculty member in ESL and as the Department Chair of World Languages. These were very special years, spent working with wonderful students from diverse linguistic, cultural, national, and experiential backgrounds. I loved my students, from whom I honestly learned more than I could have ever imagined.
During the following 9 years, I worked in Pima Community College’s Teacher Education Program at the Community and Desert Vista Campuses helping to prepare students for careers in the field of Education. Not only was I able to apply my expertise in Special Education, Elementary Education, Science Education, and Curriculum and Instruction, but I was also able to share my experience as an elementary teacher and special educator with my students. I especially cherished these years because of the amazing students with whom I worked. I am proud to say that after working with some of the finest pre-service teachers in our country, I can adamantly rebut the detractors of public education when they complain that the best and the brightest no longer enter the field of education. The students with whom I have had the privilege to work are living proof that the detractors are oh, so WRONG! I am privileged to work with the brightest and best every day of my life!
Working with the outstanding students of Pima Community College was an incredibly rewarding experience of which I am very proud. However, after two decades at the College, I felt it was time to expand my professional experiences in higher education beyond Pima and began to look for opportunities that would further challenge me and allow me to grow as an individual and a professional.
In 2017, I was so very fortunate to be offered a faculty appointment with Estrella Mountain Community College, where I worked in the Teacher Education Institute with pre-service educators, helping them to prepare of careers as teaching professionals. I met so many warm, supportive colleagues during my time at the College, and worked with many outstanding pre-service educators as they studied child development and elementary education with me. It was fun going back to the west side of metropolitan Phoenix, where I was raised, and I was honored to be a member of the faculty. However, when a position in Education came open at a tribal college on the Tohono O’odham Nation, I knew that it was time to put my education, experiential background, and research agenda to practical use! So, the following year, I accepted a faculty appointment with Tohono O’odham Community College and finally realized my goal of working with an Indigenous community to develop culture-based curriculum that strengthens traditional language and culture, bolsters individual and community well-being, supports tribal sovereignty and self-determination, and prepares young people to take charge of their destiny.
In my current position with Tohono O’odham Community College, I am charged with helping our pre-service teachers develop the knowledge and skills that will prepare them to serve the children of the Tohono O’odham Nation. At a time when federal and state governments, as well as many mainstream communities in America, are turning their backs on public schools and failing to support the education of our country’s most valuable resource, its children, the Tohono O’odham have recognized the vital role that a community-based, public supported education plays in strengthening communities, in promoting community values and ideals, in helping children recognize and achieve their full potentials, and in ensuring that future generations are well-prepared to be active, participatory, supportive members who engage in and serve their tribal communities.
In each of the professional positions I have held, I have learned to value, affirm, and positively respond to the wonderfully rich diversity represented in educational communities. The insights I have gained concerning the various aspects of cultural, social, experiential, and intellectual interactions represented in learning environments have bolstered my passion for education and made me an even greater supporter of public education at all levels and, most especially, community colleges.
I am a multi-faceted, multi-talented person. My background is diverse, and has prepared me to assume positions of academic leadership that draw on a wide range of workforce and academic experiences. I actually started out, many years ago, on a very different life path. After graduating from Maryvale High School, I enrolled at my local community college, Glendale Community College. With the support of so many excellent instructors and student service professionals, I graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in Agriculture and transferred to Northern Arizona University, where I earned a degree in Natural Resources Management and Public Administration. I went on to become a park ranger and was one of the first women in this state to ever do so. In fact, I was the first female ranger ever assigned to Catalina State Park, where I served on the Park’s first ranger crew prior to its opening to the public. As a ranger with expertise in interpretation, I dedicated myself to educating the public, a responsibility that I dearly loved. My fields of expertise ranged from ecology and anthropology to boating laws and safety. I chose to work in parks across the state of Arizona that allowed me to hone my interpersonal and interpretive skills as well as my leadership abilities. It was through my first career in Natural Resources Management, working as a ranger in the Arizona State Parks system, that I gained a tremendous breadth of managerial and leadership experience by performing a wide range of duties that prepared me to be a fair, reasonable, inclusive leader with a collegial, collaborative, and consultative management style. Through my work for the Parks Department, I developed the ability to utilize informed, strategic processes in shared decision-making, in short- and long-term planning, and in the development and implementation of consistent, equitable, and ethical policies, practices, and processes.
It was my desire to become Arizona Game and Fish Department’s educational outreach coordinator that brought me to the field of Education. The position required that I obtain a teaching credential; so, like many before me, I began my pathway to teacher certification as a student at a local college, Pima Community College. In 1982, I enrolled in several courses that would allow me to begin earning a teaching certificate. The employees of the college were both helpful and encouraging, and my instructors were top-notch. From the moment I walked into my first teaching methods class, I recognized that I had a new calling and a new passion – education.
When I needed to bolster my education, it was a community college that opened its welcoming doors to me and became my portal to a new career, one that has taken me on an incredible, life-long adventure and has led to personal and professional opportunities I never dreamed possible. I owe a great deal to community colleges and the communities that create, nurture, support, and sustain them. For more than twenty years, as a committed instructor and faculty leader, I have chosen to dedicate myself to working as a community college educator to support the community college mission AND communities that embrace their colleges. Throughout my tenure as a college instructor, I assumed positions of leadership at the department, campus, and college level, as well as within the community, building strong interpersonal relationships, networks of support, and cherished friendships while developing additional abilities that support my leadership and managerial skills. I am proud to say that I have been highly regarded by students and colleagues alike, and that, on a regular basis, have been recognized and affirmed as a trusted, cooperative, inclusive educator and educational leader.
Professional Goals
Over the course of my professional careers, I have held positions of leadership. As a Natural Resources Manager and Park Ranger for the state of Arizona, I supported the management of resources and personnel in the parks to which I was assigned. I wrote and managed a number of successful grants for improvements on the parks. As the Lead Faculty Member in both English as a Second Language and Education, as well as the Department Chair of World Languages and Education, I have been groomed and mentored for leadership roles within the college. I have assumed leadership positions with increasingly complex managerial and administrative related responsibilities within multi-campus, multi-faceted institutions of higher education. In addition, since 2007, I have served on the governing board of a public charter high school in Tucson, Sky Islands High. As a board member, I have engaged in even more complex institutional processes and procedures, while assuming tremendous accountability as a steward of public funds and resources. In my affiliation with Sky Islands, I have gained a deeper understanding of and commitment to ethical, legal, fiscal, academic, and curricular accountability. Perhaps more than in any previous position, this appointment has prepared me to better understand and the complex and extensive duties of a curricular leader.
As my career progresses, I aspire to assume even more complex duties as a curricular leader as part of a collaborative curricular team. I offer a rich and varied educational background from which to draw in developing, delivering, and improving cutting-edge educational opportunities for those who wish to learn.
I recently completed my doctoral program of studies at the University of Arizona, where I focused on Indigenous Education and curriculum in support of Indigenous language and culture sustainability and tribal sovereignty and self-determination. It is fitting that in my work at Tohono O'odham Community College, I am helping to prepare Indigenous teachers who will help their nation reclaim education and Indigenize the curriculum that will be followed in the schools of the Tohono O'odham Nation. I feel as if I am one of the luckiest people alive!
My Commitment to the Field of Education
As this page suggests, I am, and always have been, a public servant. I am committed to the highest standards of working for the common ideals of society and for social justice. I have chosen to accept positions with agencies and institutions populated by stewards of the future. Professionals in these institutions invest in the resources of the present to ensure a brighter future for us all. As a park ranger, I worked to conserve, protect, and preserve the state’s natural, historic, recreational, and scenic resources, not only for our children, but also for many future generations of our children’s children. As a public school teacher and a college instructor, I have worked diligently to support our students and their success. In supporting the hopes, the dreams, and the goals of our students, I am investing in not only their futures, but in our collective future as well.
