Instructor Bio

About me & my role in the Health Education Department:

- Faculty in the  Health Education Dept teaching HLTH 91M: Mindful Stress Reduction

- Former (retired) Coordinator of  the HIV/STI Education Office and the HIV/Hepatitis Navigation Specialist Certificate now the Community Health Worker Certificate

- Founder and former faculty advisor for the Gender Diversity Project and the Link Resource Center

I retired as a full-time instructor in 2017 and will continue to teach part-time as the instructor for HLTH 91M: Mindful Stress Reduction, a course in mindfulness meditation practices.

I have been teaching at CCSF since 1997. I have 40 years of experience in health education, advocacy, and providing health care services.  I started as a Community Health Worker, became an LVN (studied at CCSF -John Adams 1974), went on to become a Physicians Assistant in Primary Care (Stanford-Foothill 1980), studied Public Health (MPH - Community Health Education at University of Mass in 1995), received training to teach MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction 2009) and have completed a Certification in Mindfulness Facilitation (UCLA Semel Institute 2015) .  I have been meditating for almost 30 years. Lifelong learning continues to be a core value for me.

Areas of special interest over the years have been social justice and human rights, meditation & yoga, HIV prevention, leadership development, gender & sexuality studies, end of life issues, violence prevention, women's health, substance use, and above all promoting health equity for everyone. 

I love teaching at CCSF because I strongly believe in a public open door - open enrollment institution that serves community interests.  CCSF is where it all started for me and I remain truly inspired by my creative, enthusiastic, and intelligent students and the talented, dedicated, and compassionate faculty and staff I work with.  My classes are interactive with a combination of individual, group, and online learning activities, discussion, video, and lecture.

My pronouns are she/her/hers and them is fine too