As an educator, I want students to challenge their initial understanding of a topic and develop more nuanced, critical thinking. I strive to build learning communities where students connect through a more vulnerable place of what they don’t already know.

I have taught courses on social welfare policy, community organizing, political theory, statistics, research methods, and community-engaged projects at the undergraduate, MSW, and PhD levels at UCLA, Loyola University Chicago, and Stony Brook University. I currently teaches the Master of Social Welfare policy sequence at Stony Brook University, HWC 509 and HWC 510.

My teaching is inspired by bell hooks’ work in Teaching Community:

“To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn. That learning process comes easiest to those of us who also believe that there is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.” 

(hooks, 2003, p. 13)