I was born and raised in the self-proclaimed “Crown Jewel” of California, Oakland. After receiving no encouragement to attend college from school or home, I enrolled in community college. It was during that time that I found my passion for education. I was a fledgling student, until a Sport Sociologist at University of California at Berkeley inspired me. The last few decades, I have focused coursework, research, and employment on race and ethnicity, sports, and education.
I transferred to U.C Berkeley (the #1 Public University in the country), and graduated with a degree in Sociology. After teaching Middle School for a year, I enrolled in the University of California, Los Angeles to earn a Master’s in African American Studies. My Master’s Thesis was entitled After the Game: The Social Mobility Patterns of Retired Black Athletes. Upon graduation, I enrolled in the Psycho-Social Aspects of Sport doctoral program at the University of Utah.
I moved back to Los Angeles to finish my degree, and be a stay at home dad. Well, I am still All But Dissertation (ABD), but I have two kids now. Furthermore, I started a career in research and evaluation when I started working with a firm that was the third party evaluator for LAUSD high school implementing Small Learning Communities. From there, I took a research position at Rio Hondo College. For the last several years, I have served as a researcher at Mt. SAC focused formerly on Student Equity and currently on Guided Pathways. In addition, had the honor of being selected as 2019-20 fellow in the California Education Policy Fellowship Program.
