For nearly fifteen years, I’ve designed, launched, and led micro-schools in Oakland, CA, where I provided unique and engaging strengths-based learning environments that children adored. My training in Nonviolent Communication and my Montessori credential inspire my educational philosophies and practices, including strength-based pedagogy, project-based learning, dual-differentiation strategies, and gradeless classrooms.

My work focuses on neurodivergent children, specifically with twice-exceptional children: quirky children with minds that make sense of the world differently from other children their age, or those who need an unusual amount of scaffolding to accomplish simple-looking tasks yet inspire us with boundary-pushing insights and creations. I draw on my compassion as well as my personal and professional experience to help these children understand who they are and how they learn—then I translate that to the caregivers and professionals that care for them.

In 2016 I was honored by the California Association for the Gifted for distinguished service on behalf of gifted and twice-exceptional children. More recently, I was recognized as a “person to watch in the 2e movement” by 2e News.

My newest publication, Could You Live Underwater: A Design Thinking and STEM Curriculum is available now from Routledge publishing. My second book on micro-schools, Do More of What Makes You Awesome: Micro-Schools for Twice-Exceptional Children, is forthcoming from GHF Press.

I earned my Ed.D. at Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity in 2022. It is my honor to continue on as a professor at the same school, supporting others as they envision a strength-based world for neurodivergent humans.