WELCOME!

Education and learning have been passions of mine since I was a child. Growing up on the Southside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I attended my pre-k-12 in the Milwaukee Public School District. With the limited resources I had at my schools, I knew education would be the factor to help my family prosper. As a first-generation, low-income Mexican American woman, being the support and future of my family has been the motivation that has fueled me to be here today. 

My career and access to higher education started in 9th grade when I received a letter from the Precollege Enrichment Opportunity Program for the Learning Excellence (PEOPLE Program) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This program gave me the pre-college experience to navigate a college campus, gain extra academic support, apply to the university, and gain internship experiences. Once I was admitted, my adult academic journey started by attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While at UW, I was a part of the Center of Educational Opportunity (CeO), PEOPLE Program,  and the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Program. I was actively involved in student organizations such as La Mujer Latina, the Organization of Women Looking for Sisterhood in Chi Upsilon Sigma (O.W.L.S. in C.U.S.), Latin@s Unidos, Corazones Unidos Siempre, Chi Upsilon Sigma, National Latin Sorority, Incorporated – Beta Upsilon Colony, and Order of Omega Delta Eta Chapter. 

Academically, I earned a B.S. in Community and Nonprofit Leadership with an additional major in Gender and Women Studies with five certificates in Chican@ and Latin@ Studies, Educational Policy Studies, LGBTQ Studies, Education and Educational Studies, and Leadership. Following this degree, I attended Marquette University in the Educational Policy and Leadership program, specializing in Educational Policy and Foundations for a Masters of Arts. Through this experience, I realized that I wanted to learn more about the struggles and inequities systems of oppression hold against marginalized communities and how to combat them. I plan to focus my future research on working and creating awareness of the inequities that marginalized communities have in education, especially when trying to get access to higher education. Most recently, I earned my doctoral degree at Iowa State University in Higher Education Administration.

In my free time, I enjoy listening to music, going to the gym as a proud plus-size weightlifter, and planning my stationery items. I also love spending time with all my pets and traveling from LA to Iowa to my hometown of Milwaukee Wisconsin.