I am a mother, Latina with indigenous roots (Lenca), immigrant, first-gen scholar, learning designer, educational technologist, researcher, and overall enthusiast of inclusive and holistic learning design and practices that engender creativity, equity, and justice. I appreciate learning about the cognitive journey of human resiliency and enjoy collaborating to foster creativity and agency in learners across ecosystems. My professional work, research, and personal pursuits have focused on a practice aiming for wholeness, harmony, advancing social justice through design of more equitable approaches and systems that value human dignity.

The following images (hover for text) represent my sources of light and inspiration.

I am fascinated with how we learn as humans and how we deal with the complexity and uncertainty life throws at us; the sand beneath us is always shifting. As we emerge and heal from a global pandemic and aim towards systemic anti-racism, it seems more important than ever to be bold and intentional in designing more robust, inclusive, trauma-informed, justice-oriented systems and learning spaces that recognize new insights on embodied cognition and holistic learning. Through the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, and working with individuals as whole humans, we may reach societal healing and holistic growth.

My graduate studies, research, and personal engagements have provided opportunities to engage, support, and better understand promising practices in holistic learning design and how we can advance towards greater intentionality in design for humanity’s wellness.

My career impact has been in public service and higher education with some entrepreneurial pursuits. Working with faculty and with students over 15+ years, and through my own lived experiences as a first-generation student and researcher, my work is attuned to the importance of identifying and offering strategies and pathways to increase transparency and discernibility for individual liberation and fostering growth mindsets in navigating through the challenges of complex institutional systems.