I attended UC Berkeley where I studied language production and the human brain: how we take in information, how we form meaning, how we remember. The science of learning became a genuine obsession.

While in college, I taught digital literacy to underprivileged middle school students in Oakland. That experience set the course for everything that followed.

I worked for a forensic psychologist, building the life timelines behind criminal cases — reading the stories behind the numbers. I saw how the absence of opportunities to build skills narrowed people's options and changed the course of their lives. It was a detour that deepened my commitment to equipping people with agency, through language skills and financial literacy. This has continued to impact my endeavors:

As Board Advocacy Chair for Oregon's TESOL organization, I met directly with senators and representatives about the real impact of education policy on teachers and learners.

After years of teaching English abroad and in the States, I earned my MA in English with a concentration in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

I explored experiential learning (learning by doing) and inductive teaching — asking carefully crafted questions that allow learners to discover and build patterns for themselves. While completing my degree, I continued to teach, design curricula, and mentor other teachers.

Over the years, I've taught university students in the U.S. and abroad. I've taught preschool, mature adult learners and everyone in between. I've worked with learners from nearly every continent — different languages, abilities, educational histories, and goals.

Working with the youngest learners clarified something that applies to all ages: intentional behavior change starts with a healthy respect for how our thoughts and emotions impact what we do.

After navigating personal finance for my own family and years of self study, I revisited a need I saw for effective financial education. This was the beginning of Cashtoons.

I also facilitated an experiential learning simulation, Junior Achievement's BizTown, a program where 71 to 150 fifth graders run a fully functioning town for a day — managing businesses, opening bank accounts, and applying profits to small business loans.

I went on to work in instructional design at the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education® and earned my Accredited Financial Counselor® (AFC®) certification — a rigorous credential that requires demonstrated competence in financial counseling, ongoing continuing education, and adherence to a code of ethics.

I expanded Cashtoons with my nephew, niece, and son in mind. Not a market segment — people I love. What would I want for them? Something honest. Something that respects their time and intelligence. Something that isn't quietly working for someone else.

Every Cashtoons short is built from the same foundation: cognitive science on how people retain information, micro-learning principles, visual storytelling, and a genuine commitment to making the financially healthy option also the doable one.

Cashtoons upholds a fiduciary standard — your best interests are the only priority. That's not a tagline. It's an ethical commitment, and it's the reason I built this independently.