My childhood home in Brooklyn, NY was one that was marked by domestic violence, addictions, and poverty. I grew up mostly fatherless and our home was led by my mom, who is an immigrant from Costa Rica. She raised 3 children while trying to work and went back to school for an AA degree. Her perseverance and diligence always inspired me. I attended a local elementary school and attended an intermediate school which is listed as one of the great middle schools in NYC. Because of one of middle school teacher's vision for children, he maintained a relationship with elite academic high schools on the East Coast. One of their admission officers visited my intermediate school and interviewed me and a few others. After the application process, I was offered a full scholarship to attend Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. It is considered to be one of the best secondary schools in the world. Here I received a wonderful education, was adept in sports, and learned another language-Russian. I was accepted to all of the colleges I applied for including Yale and Cornell but decided to attend Stanford University where I subsequently received my Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

After such a trying beginning to my life, this leaves me with a grateful retrospection to all the people that helped me, believed in me, and gave me courage. They helped me turn my weaknesses into my strengths. I am eternally grateful to a teacher in high school who took countless hours to go over my essays with me so I could just not get by in writing but make it a true art. Since I have received so much support, it goes without saying that I should support the students in the same way here in Oakland and give them a glimpse of what their futures could be like. I can relate to how they live and the feelings of a harsh life and reality. But, there are so many opportunities for them. I hope that UrbanNet can not only give them better math and reading skills, but that it would give them hope for their futures. I anticipate that we can inspire them to rise above all that is around them and have hearts full of dreams.

Currently, I manage 2 educational programs in the departments of OBGYN and one is a longitudinal program, called PISCES, at the University of California at San Francisco. Overall, I have been working in medical education for over 4 years. I reside in Oakland, CA with a fantastic family which includes my husband, Bernard, and son, BJ.