About Me

I teach. I research. I write. I facilitate.

I am an award-winning Clinical Associate Professor of Public Service at the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where I teach public leadership, management, and advocacy at the intersections of race, class, gender, and place. At NYU, I direct the Executive MPA program for mid-career public leaders and serve on university-wide initiatives, including the Latinx Project Advisory Council, the Community Engagement & Impact Council, and the Women's Leadership Forum Steering Committee.

Before joining NYU in 2022, I spent nearly twenty years leading across government, non-profit, and academic sectors. I began my public service career in local and state government as a policy analyst for the New York City Council and the New York State Education Department. I subsequently transitioned into higher education and nonprofit leadership, serving in programmatic roles and ultimately as executive director—a lived experience that directly informs my work with executive cohorts today. In 2012, I began teaching at the university level, building extensive pedagogical experience with undergraduate and graduate students at Bard College, Drew University, Eugene Lang College at The New School, and the University of Mount Saint Vincent.

Grounded in this executive and institutional background, I founded and operated an independent research and strategy consultancy advising social justice leaders, foundations, and nonprofit organizations. In this role, I produced high-impact evaluation and strategy tools—such as this report for the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation—while also facilitating organizational alignment across teams, organizations, and networks from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to the NYC tri-state area and points in between. Today, I translate that practitioner foundation into custom training, executive facilitation, and strategic advising.

My expertise in community-engaged research, advocacy, and qualitative methodology is recognized nationally. I serve as Guest Faculty for the NYU Stern School of Business in partnership with the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women initiative, delivering its core advocacy module. I also serve on the National Advisory Board for Imagining America and was a 2024–2025 Senior Fellow at the University of Richmond’s Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, where I advised on participatory research strategies using my Story Circle Interview Method. Additionally, I have served as a peer reviewer for journals such as Evidence & Policy and Social and Personality Psychology Compass, as well as for the U.S. Department of Education’s Community Schools grant review panel.

As a scholar and writer, my work examines participatory qualitative methodologies and critical pedagogy. My publications include a peer-reviewed book chapter on the Story Circle Interview Method (Manchester University Press, 2025) and a chapter on community-engaged learning in an edited handbook (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2026). My public scholarship appears in outlets such as Public Seminar, The New Historia, and Intervenxions.

I am completing a PhD in Public and Urban Policy at The New School for Social Research, where my research examines education policy, spatial justice, and the tension between PROMESA-era school closures and the community-led rescued schools movement (escuelas rescatadas) in Puerto Rico. I hold an M.A. in Sociology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a B.A. in Communication Studies from George Mason University, alongside advanced training with the Public Science Project, Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, and Rockwood Leadership Institute.

Most importantly, I am the daughter of a first-generation Tex-Mex Army veteran mother from the borderlands and a Black father who integrated his Teamsters Union in 1970s Virginia. My earliest lessons in public service come from my family and my experience as a first-generation college graduate. My proudest leadership role is as a mother. I call The Bronx, NY, home, where I reside with my husband and our teenage son. (Hablo, leo y escribo en español).