Ph.D. Education, Capella University

M.F.A., Dance, Mills College

B.A. Dance, Mills College

Six Thumbs Dance Theatre, Founder/Director, 1985-1995

During the ebb and flow of the pandemic, I  focused on facilitating a sense of community in the places I teach, with an emphasis on encouraging myself and others to move our bodies and minds in a variety of ways. I was certified and began teaching Tai Chih Chih, Tai Chi for Arthritis & Fall Prevention, and Love Your Brain Yoga - a form of yoga focused on teaching those who have been impacted by traumatic brain injuries. I became an Accessible Yoga Ambassador, completed the ACEs Aware/Toxic Stress Certification, studied mindfulness with Mindful Schools, and trained so that I could teach college classes online, including yoga, folk dance, and salsa dance!  As an independent teacher, I started, and continue, to offer movement classes via Zoom on a pay-what-you-can basis. More recently, I have trained with the Bone Health and Osteopososis Foundation  and am currenlty working towards certification in Tai Chi for Osteoporosis.

For 36 years I was a faculty member at City College of San Francisco (CCSF). Courses taught  in the Physical Education and Dance Department include Modern Dance, Jazz Dance, Ballet, Ballroom Dance, Salsa and Latin American Dances, International Folk Dance, European Folk Dance, CCSF Dance Repertory Company, Dance Production (Modern, Ballroom, Folk, Salsa), Dance History, Teaching Movement (A lecture class for future dance, PE, and yoga teachers), all levels of Yoga, Intensive Yoga, Yoga Movement, Aerobics, Resistance Training, Body Sculpting, and, Analysis of Folk, Social and Ballroom Dance. Courses taught in the Older Adults Department include Body Dynamics and Mind-Body Health.

During my time at CCSF I organized and hosted several multicultural dance performances, parties, workshops, and festivals each year. Examples of these events include: The Blossom International Folk Dance Festival; The San Francisco Free Folk Festival; The SF Kolo Dance Festival; AXIS Dance Company Workshop and Performance; Colombian Ethnic Dance Workshops; Romanian Dance Workshops; Alaskan Dance Workshop; Dances for All Ages Workshops; and, Filipino Dance Workshop. Each semester, for over 25 years, I produced the CCSF Salsa and/or Ballroom Dance Party, and, the CCSF Low-Tech Dance Performance, an informal performance featuring dance work by CCSF faculty, students, and alum. I directed Working, an ongoing dance performance series presenting the work of CCSF dance students, alum, and other local choreographers. I also served as the the Faculty Advisor of Shall We Dance, a CCSF partner social dance club and the Latin and Social Dance Club.

In response to CCSF student interest I authored the CCSF Certificate of Accomplishment in Yoga Instruction and directed the program as a volunteer for two years. For this certificate program, I created a new course, Teaching Movement, designed to help future dance, yoga, and PE teachers gain a foundation in the theory and practice of teaching movement to students of all ages. To assist students in gaining experience as yoga teachers, I sponsored and supervised a series of student-led yoga workshops, which were free to the community. These included: Yoga taught in Spanish, Family Yoga, Yoga Taught in Italian, and Restorative Yoga.

An Emerita Lecturer at San Francisco State University, I  taught in the Kinesiology Department for 35 years. The courses I taught include Fitness and Conditioning, Individualized Weightlifting, Yoga, Aerobics, Step Aerobics, Posture, Personal Fitness Programming, and Ballroom Dance. I authored and taught the course Fitness, Wellness, and the Global Perspective, for which students studied physical activities from around the world, methods of cultivating personal wellness, and global public policies related to wellness. Additionally, students were guided to design, implement, and evaluate an 8-week personal wellness program.

There is more to tell about me...like all of the work I've done with kids pre-K to high school, my research and lived experiences about what keeps college students in school, my role as a wedding officiant,  yoga classes I designed and taught for infertility and neo-natal death, my choreographic works, and the 10 years I directed a dance company...but, those stories are for another time!