I was born, raised, and schooled in Los Angeles. My amazing 6th grade teacher Mr. Boice (in a self-contained classroom) cultivated a learning environment built upon care in personal relationships that was simultaneously engaging, fun, and productive. He inspired me to teach so that I might emulate for others the same ethereal educational experience that he gave to me. Throughout middle school and high school, I also had great math teachers who believed in me and gave me strong conceptual foundations that found me fascinated by mathematics as a discipline. So when I entered college, I put my two loves of teaching and mathematics together as a "Mathematics For Teaching" major at UCLA. In five years, I earned my bachelor's degree, CA Single Subject Teaching Credential in Mathematics, and Master's in Education. I went on to teach high school mathematics in East Oakland for four years. I love empowering people to find beauty and joy in mathematics, and I'm always thinking of ways to make our whole national system of mathematics education better. (You can read my writings about that on my teaching blog: thestudentofteaching.blogspot.com.) I'd love to spend time helping you on your math goals!