About me

Over the past few decades, I have been a teacher, childcare provider, and Mother! Kindness, patience, empathy, and creativity are what I value most. I love working with all children but particularly with 7 to 16-year-olds.

I grew up in both Miami Beach, FlA and Armonk, NY. My mother was a classical pianist, art teacher, artist, and poet. My father played Flamenco guitar and loved the theatre and cinema. I had to practice several hour a day on the piano. I had a fascinating and magical childhood. Like my childhood, I really try to enhance a child's curiosity as much as I can and make learning feel as magical as it did for me. I went to Boston Conservatory of Music for Musical Theatre and transferred to Emerson College (but continued my music studies at the conservatory.), I got my BFA in Writing/Theatre and minored in music. I am proficient in classical piano and love to sing and I teach piano, singing and acting.

I was a substitute teacher for 6 years, mainly at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village from 2006-2012. I babysat for many of my students at night. I worked with children from Nursery school up to the 5th grade. I also worked at IS89 with 6/7th and 8th graders and helped their after school creative programs. This was one of my most valuable experiences with children because I worked with so many from all walks of life.

After that, I went back to school for nutrition counseling in Integrative Health and eventually Clinical Mental Health Counseling. I feel it is very important for children to be exposed to healthy foods for brain health. I have also worked with many charities that focus on child nutrition. I was a consultant for a wonderful charity called Blessings in a Backpack to help children get food on the weekends when they were not able to have access to food and I also joined a charity called Team Continuum that helped give holiday gifts for children in hospitals. Charitable work is a meaningful part of my life.

From 2015 to 2019, I worked with a wonderful boy named Parker, who was 10 when I started and 14 years old when we parted ways. He was brilliant well beyond his years. His mother allowed me to be his mentor, teaching him piano, taking him to museums, and trying new types of foods. We really enjoyed cooking together! I would pick him up from school, bring him to lessons, cook dinner for him and help him with his English studies. I also helped him navigate some of the issues with other kids that often happen as children get into the higher grades. Parker also allowed me to enter his world of curiosity!

A different type of experience in caretaking occurred in 2019-2022 when I was asked to care for an Alzheimer's patient named Dan. There are a lot of parallels to working with the elderly and working with children. Finding creative ways to engage Dan was a large part of my job. We spent a lot of time together reading books, taking walks and talking about the past. He loved that I helped him bring his memories back to life. It revitalized him. My employers all feel like I have an incredible amount of patience and positive energy to bring to whoever I work with. That is very inspiring to me.

As a teacher, nanny and as a mother, it has been my experience that empathy is the most important value we can show and teach our children. I look at every individual in the same way whether it be a child or an adult. We all deserve kindness, respect and a willingness to be open minded to allow whomever you are working with to flourish and grow.