Interim Director- Washington Center 
Professor Emeritus, Arts & Humanities
The Evergreen State College, Tacoma
Tacoma, Washington

I am a teacher, educator, global traveler, storyteller and lifelong learner. I am passionate about teaching and learning, student engagement and retention, culturally inclusive pedagogies, integrated curriculum designs, resistance and resiliency studies and applying ancient and global wisdoms to contemporary situations. My approach to work (and life) is shaped by my practice of appreciative inquiry and my perpetual interest in identifying and shifting negative paradigms that shape our worldviews and hinder our sense of possibilities. I have considerable expertise in the following high impact practices: learning community design, service learning, undergraduate research, and viewing students as valued partners.

I served as the Executive Director of The Evergreen State College’s Tacoma Campus from 1990 to 2008. During my tenure, the campus instituted a value based—inclusivity, hospitality, reciprocity and civility—infrastructure and an “Enter to Learn, Depart to Serve” mission statement; became a Public Art Project destination; and had a retention and graduation rate of more than 89%.

I have over 45 years of experience as a practitioner of learning community excellence, inclusive pedagogy and moving from deficit to asset thinking. I have worked as a resource faculty at NSILC since its inception. I have also done faculty development and student success work with a variety of leader community colleges, college districts, civic, state, regional, and national consortiums. Most recently, I presented at the National Learning Communities Conference and led workshops at Historically Black Colleges and Universities Faculty Development Network Institutes. I am currently the Dream Scholar Student Responder Coordinator for Achieving the Dream – Community Colleges Count Student Success Annual Conferences and a frequently sought after workshop designer and facilitator.

I am a Founding Member of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC) and a Fulbright Scholar. I have done extensive research on Africana History, Culture and Spirituality in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Mali, The Gambia, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, South Africa, India, the Yucatan, Trinidad, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama and Cuba. I am currently working on an autobiographical triptych and a one-woman show entitled “45 years of Indigestibility while in the Belly of the Higher Education Beast.”