About Me

 I was born in El Paraiso, a small town in Honduras. My father passed away when I was eight years old. A year after his death my mother made the difficult decision to send my sister and I to live with my aunt and her family in the United States. She made that difficult decision because she wanted my sister and I to have better life opportunities. Soon,  I learned to speak English and was a “regular kid.” My mother was able to join us some time later and we moved to Miami Beach, a place that will always feel like home for me. School was not difficult for me and by the time I graduated from Miami Beach High School I had earned a four year scholarship and went to college at the University of South Florida. 

I started out my career as a school teacher in Miami Beach. After teaching for some time, I volunteered to work with at risk students.  After working with this population for some time, I realized the value of connecting with students through conversation. I began to build relationships with them that went beyond math, reading and science. I learned that I could not expect them to learn from any curriculum if they were not able to trust me, did not feel safe, connected to one another, did not feel cared for, had a sense of belonging, and mostly they had to know they mattered when they walked into my classroom. With all they taught me I then decided to obtain a masters degree in school counseling at St. Thomas University. 

I eventually worked in various school settings with students from Pre-K to 12 grade. These students came from diverse racial/ethnic/religious backgrounds, from a wide range of economic status and privilege, from parents who had various gender/sexual identities, who varied in cognitive abilities and social emotional needs. I worked with students who experienced trauma, were survivors of physical abuse, domestic violence, who were struggling with their gender/sexual identity, who were the caretakers at home, who were experiencing homelessness and at times substance use. However, no matter where I worked, I always strived to provide counseling that was student centered with a humanistic approach. I valued each student and met them where they were. I wanted my office to be a safe place where there was no judgement and they were accepted just as they were. Students responded positively and I was amazed at their resilience, their ability to adapt,  their ability to remain positive, their wisdom, their ability to forgive, their ability to learn and their willingness to try to help me understand their lived experiences. 

When I was working at a K-12 school I began working with high school students and became a cross country coach. After some of these students graduated and went on to college they would reach out to me and seek support. I realized I really enjoyed working with this population as well. I decided to apply for the Clinical Case Manager position at the University of Florida’s Counseling and Wellness Center. 

This is where I learned more about the mental health needs of college students and the challenges colleges experience in providing support due to the demand. I wanted to make a difference outside the confinement of my office. I wanted to reach students with a medium they understood, but the message had to be exclusively for college students. I wanted to create a podcast that would catapult a virtual community where students feel connected, feel like they matter, are encouraged to live authentically, feel like someone understands them, and that they are not alone in their struggles, ergo I created the “Imperfectly Perfect” Podcast. There was one one huge major hurdle to do this, technology is not my strength, so I enlisted the my family’s help. 

I am married with four boys. I enjoy cooking, photography, reading, dancing in my kitchen and spending time with my family. I love sea turtles and traveling to new places. I also enjoy musicals and latin music. So, that’s enough about me for now, tune into my podcast where I too will share more about my imperfect but perfect life during my many upcoming episodes.