I am a Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, specializing in language, literacy and cultural processes in education. I'm the Director of Faculty for the Teacher Education Program, and co-director of the Migration Studies seminar series.

My research focuses on the daily life experiences of the children of immigrants in urban school communities, and especially on their experiences as translators/interpreters for their families. I'm currently working with classroom teachers in Los Angeles to design curriculum that leverages bilingual students’ language experiences for the development of academic skills.

Before returning to graduate school for a Ph.D. in education, I worked for ten years as a bilingual classroom teacher and immigrant rights activist in the Pico Union area of Los Angeles.

Here at UCLA, I live in Canyon Point with my 11-year-old son, Andres. My 20-year-old daughter, Elisa, attends UC Santa Cruz. I enjoy hiking, swimming, yoga, meditating, playing flute, reading good novels (as well as all the social science books I read for my work), working on local and global political issues, and watching Andres ride his scooter and skateboard around Covel Plaza.