Since 2001, I have been involved in some form with ex-offender rehabilitation. First as an adult education teacher, I would often work with adults who were on parole, probation, or otherwise had previously been in prison, and work with them to get their life's back together and be able to exist successfully in society. And as I took on more leadership roles in adult education, I started to focus more on helping ex-offenders, such as co-developing major career programs like truck driving and green construction that were ex-offender friendly. And when I co-founded an adult-serving charter school in Sacramento, one of the specific populations that it was built to serve were those of ex-offenders. I have also been a team member on multiple WASC reviews to California prisons.
So why am I so passionate about helping ex-offenders rehabilitate? The following excerpt of what I wrote in the charter petition explains this well:
High School Dropouts are much more likely to become incarcerated, and many families are affected by having a family member who is an ex-offender... By being able to provide for their family in a legitimate manner, the children of the ex-offenders will have better role models, and are more likely to break the cycle of crime. Without serving this population, the problem will just continue to grow.
Supporting clients through services including:
- Developing educated policy recommendations based upon interpreting educational policy and conducting legal research
- Conducting research, including data research; and analyzing and preparing statistical reports
- Curriculum development and education program development
- School budgeting (for grant programs and charter schools)
- Providing professional development
- Acting as a liaison with agencies (charter authorizers, etc.)
- Developed policy recommendations and interpreted educational policy and conducted legal research
- Developed curriculum and education program development, including programs that supported ex-offender rehabilitation
- Supervised Academic Department and evaluated academic teachers
- Grant Writing, Budgeting and Monitoring for WIOA Title II, and CTEIG and also Co-managed CASAS assessments for WIOA
- Led interdisciplinary interdepartmental team projects and provided professional development and acted as a liaison with other agencies and schools
- Managed the IT Department
- Conducted research, including data research and analyzed and prepared statistical reports
- As a Professor, taught three sections of Spreadsheet Essentials (COMPAPP123)
- Was a member of the Quality Student Feedback team, developing guidelines for faculty about providing feedback to students.
- Participated in Full-Time Faculty Meetings and was part of several key policy recommendations.
- Performed institutional research to understand online retention rates
- Automated several processes through the use of advanced spreadsheets (including VBA programming)
- Federally designated Chief Financial Aid Director
- Career and Technical Education Department Chairperson; Facilitator in Shared Leadership Action Team, and Faculty Meetings
- Policy Author and Adviser
- Grant Writing, Budgeting, and Monitoring for Carl Perkins. Also supported WIA (now known as WIOA) reporting and compliance.
- WASC Postsecondary Accreditation Coordinator
- Instructed Adults in Microsoft Windows, Internet, and Security; Microsoft Office XP, 2003, and 2007; applied academics with Microsoft Office.
- Instructed an advanced (work study) technician program; and, instructed Introduction to Health Informatics for medical para-professionals
- Chairperson of the Technology Action Team
- In-house Technology In-service Professional Development Trainer
- Database Technician & Administrator
- Founding employee during the start-up stage of the company as a home-based business; continued through to the maturation of a medium-sized company.
- Primarily supported users with Internet questions and problems via the telephone.
- Influenced by the philosophies of Tom Peters, I worked to provide excellent customer support, often "going above and beyond the call of duty."
- Being part of a start-up company, I had the opportunity to be involved in many areas including management, marketing, training, technical writing, and in-person support.
- Assisted, via the phone, users who were generally blind to solve their technical problems with adaptive technology, including screen readers and braille displays.
- Required "placing myself in their shoes," such that as being sighted, I could understand and work with the challenges they had being blind.
- Supported users throughout the United States, who had many different accents and cultural backgrounds.
- Studied various neurosciences and how knowledge from these disciplines can help improve teaching and learning.
- Masters project and research investigated the use of Minesweeper to help gamify the learning of logic and hypothetical thinking.
- Placed in the 99th Percentile on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal
- Focus on how education and technology can work together in an integrated system.
- Part of the credits for this degree came from taking classes at Sacramento State University in their Bachelors of Vocational Education program.
- Earned 4th Place within Sierra College in the 1995-1996 National Mathematics Competition