Welcome
Thank you so much for visiting my site! I am an Associate Dean and a Full Professor in the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. I was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised during the 1980s crack epidemic. Despite my tumultuous surroundings, I managed to find academic success; however, my family thought it was best to move to South Carolina for high school in order to be in a safer environment. I did not adjust very well, to say the least, and quickly found myself headed down the wrong path. After many ups and downs, I finally figured things out and have devoted my life to helping others who, similar to me, have the potential to succeed but find it difficult to meet life's many challenges. Given my personal experiences and training, I have devoted my life to fostering talent maximization mindsets among students in and out of school settings. Stated differently, I am interested in researching how marginalized students develop resilient, yet agentic, attitudes towards academic and career achievement that allow them to not only meet minimal standards, but maximize their considerable talents in pursuit of excellence despite seemingly insurmountable odds. I am also interested in doing my part to indirectly meet these students' needs by helping to diversify the counseling profession. As such, I have a strong interest in investigating contextual and individual factors related to successfully recruiting and retaining underrepresented ethnic minority students' in graduate-level training programs. Given my personal background, combined with my research and professional experiences, I have consulted with individuals, schools, school districts, universities, and community organizations all over the country on developing, coordinating, and evaluating strong counseling and educational interventions targeting ethnic minorities--particularly Black male students (K-12 and postsecondary). For more detailed information about me, please read my professional biography. |