The eldest of eight children, I had always planned on becoming a business tycoon and leaving my poverty-stricken childhood as a forgotten footnote. As the son of two former teachers, (though my mother is now a minister), there was no denying my fate.

Beginning my journey as a substitute teacher, my third assignment was in a second/third grade combination class, made up of students from other classes. It was November, and the class had had a different temporary teacher every day since the beginning of school. The walls were bare with nary a text book in sight. Children were literally jumping off of the desks. The principal was so excited (and amazed) that I had survived for three days that she raced down to the district and pushed through an emergency credential. So began my illustrious career.

The year before coming to Washington, I taught kindergarten and first grade at The Accelerated School, an independent charter school in South Los Angeles. My passions in education are early childhood, family-school-community partnerships, and life-long learning. Named Los Angeles County Teacher of the Year and member of the USA Today All-USA Teacher Team, I also served as a contributing writer to Scholastic.com for one year, posting monthly unit plans, book connections, and technology links on the Web. At the state level, I trained early childhood educators for three years on effective literacy practices. At the local level, I helped shape the county's universal pre-school policy and then founded the pre-kindergarten program at my school.

Developing effective partnerships with families is critical to a student's success. I have worked over the last nine years to create a comprehensive, model home-visiting program for my school. With an insatiable desire to learn and grow as an educator, I recently renewed my National Board Certification in Early Childhood and received my master's degree in early childhood education and have been teaching at the Charter School of Education at California State University in Los Angeles. I am currently assisting the Senior Advisor to the Secretary on Early Learning at the U.S. Department of Education.

In my free time, I work with my seven sisters and our family on our nonprofit organization, Classrooms Without Borders. Our first project is supporting a school in Battambang, Cambodia, where my father volunteers as director. In Washington, I have been able to enjoy my love of the outdoors. My husband, David and I, like to bike along the Crescent Trail. We also like to take our dog, Jeffrey on long walks in Rock Creek Park near our apartment in Glover Park. I watch the twinkling of fireflies in the summer, walk through golden leaves in the fall and throw snowballs in the winter. These are all things I couldn’t do in Los Angeles!