M y career started in immunology research. After 6 years in the industry, in 2005, I decided to teach science to the next generation. In 2010, I completed a master's in education in cross-cultural teaching. In 2012, my partner and I decided to go international and experience life in other countries. He temporarily left his career as a Ph.D. chemist, and we taught science at Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogota, Colombia, for four years. In 2016, we accepted positions at Korea International School in Seoul, South Korea. After six years abroad, we returned and settled in Los Angeles. We both found positions teaching at the same school. Then COVID hit and my father passed unexpectedly from aggressive cancer. I realized life is short and unpredictable and decided to pursue my dream of a higher degree. I have spent the last 3.5 years working and going to school full-time to earn my Ed.D. My research focus has been addressing the need to fully implement science assessment practices aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. I facilitated professional collaboration through a cycle of planning, teaching, and reflecting with middle and high school science teachers.

The doctoral journey exhausted me to a level I did not know existed but simultaneously filled me with knowledge about adopting new practices, designing effective PD, and evaluating results. It transformed me from a consumer of knowledge into a producer, shifting my mindset from seeking short-term solutions to investigating the more complex system landscapes to recognize the deeper barriers to innovation and improvement and address them. 

The process built an extraordinary level of resilience, teaching me to view setbacks not as failures but as essential data points in the pursuit of long-term goals. Ultimately, earning my doctorate cultivated a blend of intellectual humility and confidence, leaving me with the grit to master any challenge and the wisdom to respect its complexities.