Western High School, UC Berkeley, Mills College

• Mr. Stockton --drama teacher who saved my life. his room was our safe haven. i will never forget him. he even picked me up from jail once. i model myself after him when i am working with teenagers.
• Mr. Perry --junior high newspaper class teacher. i got to write and express myself for the first time. he was a so-so teacher but his class was memorable and we produced a few school newspapers. i was trying to be goth at the time.
• Mr. Tozzi --amazing hippy teacher everyone loved in high school. i had an enormous crush. i took a psychology course and it was the first class in high school that i felt was worth while and fascinating and gave me faith that there was something to an education.
• Professor Clarke --first english teacher that taught me classic poetry and completely open my eyes up to majoring in literature when i was lost.
• Professor Breitweiser --the first professor at berkeley that introduced me to contemporary novels that tackled sex, class and culture. i use to bump into him at Amoeba records. he wore birkenstocks and *always* had jazz records in his hand.
• Professor Janmohamedd --i took an intimate black literature course and his candid and open discussion of black history and black issues was amazing. it was then i became inspired to work in the african american community. he wrote me a great recommendation for graduate school. he's the only professor i bumped into consistently after graduating but i always hid. one time, he was seated next to me on an airplane. so odd.
• Professor Bishop --completely fell in love with this expert on james joyce. i even stalked him a little in college. so manic, so brilliant, so hot.
• Professor Saxton --graduate school professor that changed how i viewed myself as a woman. she was such an inspiration and i will never forget her. we became close for a while and she even asked me to co-teach a couple freshwomen english courses with her. it was an honor.