Portfolio
Speaking, research, and workshop facilitation.
Grounded in the same commitments to learning, equity, identity, and student support
Workshops & facilitation
Workshop offerings developed from direct school-based practice — available for professional development days, team trainings, and conferences.
Learning Inquiry Framework
A step-by-step process for student support teams navigating complex learning challenges — designed to help teams leave with a clear path forward, not just a longer list of concerns.
How to Conduct Asset-Based Student Observations
A workshop on moving from deficit-based to strength-based observation practice — with an equity lens embedded in the protocol to hold observers accountable for checking where deficit thinking shows up in their documentation.
Beyond Inclusion and Support: Racial Equity in Learning Services
A professional development workshop examining how racial equity shows up — and is often overlooked — within learning services and student support frameworks in independent schools.
Most recent · AsEA 2026
Self-Advocacy without Self-Betrayal: Navigating Care, Power, and Identity in Educational Spaces
Self-betrayal begins with naming the quiet tension many educators carry — suppressing values, identity, or professional judgment to maintain acceptance. For AANHPI educators in support roles, this dynamic can be especially isolating. This workshop offered a supported affinity space to counter isolation and invisibility through shared reflection and collective dialogue.
April 11, 2026 Asian Educators Alliance Conference Presented with Jiajing Wang
Conference workshop
Learning Toolkit: Demystifying Accommodations & Advancing Self-Advocacy
A student-centered workshop on communicating accommodations in ways students can actually understand and use — with over 30 educators in attendance. Participants left with strategies for building student-friendly accommodation plans and bringing students into their own support process.
Audience: School leaders & educators
Professional development
CPED Annual Conference
Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate · University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Presented doctoral work on bridging the research-to-practice gap in student support systems, alongside a panel discussion with fellow practitioner-scholars. The conference centered social justice leadership and the unique responsibility of EdD graduates to connect theory and practice.
Audience: Doctoral faculty & practitioner-scholars
Professional development
From Self to Student: Leveraging Cultural Inquiry in Learning Services
NorCal POCIS — People of Color in Independent Schools · Bay Area, CA
Using the Cultural Inquiry framework — a set of prompts that help educators examine the deeply held beliefs that shape how they interpret student behavior — to explore how cultural background and identity lens affect learning services practice.
Audience: Educators of color in independent schools
Publications & research
Connecting Evidence To Practice
Peer-reviewed writing and doctoral research connecting evidence-based practice to the realities of school-based student support.
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Ed.D. in Professional Educational Practice, 2014
Bridging the Research to Practice Gap: A Developmental Evaluation of Response to Intervention
An examination of how evidence-based frameworks like RTI get implemented — or don't — in real school contexts. Using developmental evaluation paired with action research, this study captures first-grade teachers' experiences building a school-wide RTI system and what the distance between research and practice costs students with learning differences.
Peace and Justice Institute Journal
Valencia College
From Assumption to Awakening: Race, Privilege and Power
Published writing on racial equity and educational practice, examining how assumptions about race and privilege shape learning environments and the practitioners who work within them.
Educational Perspectives
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
The EdD Cohort Experience: Students' Reflection on the Program
A collaborative reflection on the transformative experience of the UH Mānoa EdD program. Alyson's contribution — "Inquiry, Connection, and Change: A Reflection on the Transformative EdD Experience" — explores the EdD as a vehicle for inquiry, professional growth, and the pursuit of equity in educational practice.
Interested in having me speak or facilitate?
I work with schools, professional development programs, and conferences. Let’s talk about what might fit your context.