Bio...

I was born and raised in Long Beach, California where I grew-up exploring the performing arts through piano lessons, voice lessons, dance classes, and community theatre productions while also working very hard in school.  I graduated from Millikan High School as Valedictorian and Hall of Fame of the Class of 2000.  I attended Santa Clara University where my passion for a liberal arts education and the performing arts grew to depths I had not yet imagined. I graduated cum laude with my BA from the Theatre and Dance Department as well as the English Department, and a Musical Theatre Minor. A year later, I moved to Pennsylvania to pursue my Masters Degree in Theatre at Villanova University.  It was during these two years that I deepened not only my understanding of the power of theater but the vital role of the performing arts in our communities.  I graduated with distinction (the highest marks for a Dramaturgy emphasis in the theatre department's history) in 2007 and spent the next six years living and working throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area.  

In 2007, I began working as a freelance dramaturg, choreographer, performer, costume designer, external relations director, and began lecturing and teaching at local colleges, universities, and performing arts centers.  In 2009, I founded an international theatre company called Iris Theatre Company that traveled to the Prague International Fringe Festival for the world premiere of an original devised work with artists from around the world.  From 2010-2013 I had the immense pleasure of serving as the Co-Artistic Director of Wolf Performing Arts Center, a children's performing arts center dedicated to enriching the lives of young people through theatre.  At the start of Fall 2013, I relocated to California and was hired by Musical Theatre West as their Education/Outreach Coordinator, a position that I had the pleasure of holding until March of 2015 when I stepped down to continue pursuing my love of teaching.  In 2014 and 2015 I performed my one-woman cabaret for sold out audiences in Los Angeles and in Long Beach, CA.  I developed and produced a new show that premiered in 2016 and secured positions serving as an adjunct professor at Cypress College and graduate assistant for two CSULB professors.

I completed my Ed.D. as a member of Cohort X (10) in CSULB's Educational Leadership Program focusing on Higher Education in May of 2019.  I intend to continue my personal mission to deepen my community's appreciation for the arts as an educator, artist, leader, and always a dreamer.