Deborah Park is currently Curator of Projects & Partnerships (Program Specialist) for the Círculos program at Advanced Learning Academy in Santa Ana, CA. As Curator of Projects and Partnerships, she creates connections between community partners and students' learning experiences by coordinating place and project-based learning excursions, facilitating PBL curriculum training and design sessions with a team of teachers, and implementing the four core innovations of small learning communities, flexible learning environments, place x project-based learning, and competency-based learning  into the school program. As a school leader of one of 18 XQ Super Schools, Deborah has the opportunity to engage in rethinking high school through an interactive process where new ideas, whether it is student schedules or designing non-traditional learning experiences, can be implemented and improved over time. Deborah is also a doctoral candidate in the Educational Leadership Program at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies.

In the past, Deborah has served as a Literacy Coach for the Santa Ana Unified School District and she has taught 6th and 8th grade English Language Arts, 6th grade math, and 7th grade AVID during her time as a classroom teacher. She strives to encourage student success and facilitate a learning environment where her students can flourish into critical thinkers, creative innovators, and globally-minded individuals.

Deborah graduated from UCLA as a communication studies major with an art history minor. She has had internships at various publicity firms, such as Rogers & Cowan's Film and Fashion publicity departments, as well as the publicity department for the Hammer Museum. She also worked as an editorial assistant at the J. Paul Getty Museum, which gave her insanely-fast-proofreading-editing-powers; however, her passion is in teaching. She received her masters degree in Teaching and a single-subject credential in English from UC Irvine. She adores the artistic and literary works of Joseph Beuys, John Steinbeck, Edouard Manet, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, and John Keats. Her favorite cities are Berlin, Paris, and Istanbul. She loves art museums, Oscar-worthy films, Emmy-winning television shows, KCRW, Martha Stewart, the stories in the New Yorker, Vogue magazine, Target, and Starbucks Americanos.

Ms. Park's YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/deborahpark8