I was born and raised in the Philippines, but have lived/worked/studied in Singapore, the USA, and Australia. I have been involved in various aspects of museum or cultural work in the Philippines, the USA, and Australia since 1998. I have also held positions at the Ayala Museum, Lopez Museum and Library, Museum of Chinese Australian History, as well as graduate internship roles at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Harn Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, and Florida Museum of Natural History.

I have a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne, a master’s in Museology (major: education) from the University of Florida, and a bachelor’s in Philippine Arts (major: arts management) from the University of the Philippines-Manila.

My PhD research, Curated learning, focused on identifying teaching strategies of museums that school teachers can adopt to help students engage in deep learning. My research project was part of a multi-million dollar and multi-country Australia Research Council Linkages project, Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change.

I have also been awarded a number of prestigious international academic and professional scholarships including the Fulbright Scholarship, Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, and Melbourne International Research scholarship.

Although I am currently based in Australia, I remain active in museums and universities in the overseas. I continue to deliver talks and facilitate workshops aimed at sharing expertise and resources in working towards developing more dynamic, engaging, and inviting cultural centres all. I also engage with teachers and education students about how I apply finding from my research in my teaching practice in formal and informal learning environments.

In 2013, I co-created and co-facilitated workshop modules for the UNESCO-Philippines funded Zero In National Workshop on Establishing Museums. Encouraged by the success of the first workshop, two more workshops were awarded funds and held in 2014 and 2015. Over 200 participants representing more than 100 museums/cultural institutions across the Philippines attended the workshops, modules of which were based on my master’s project-thesis on Creating Classroom Museums in the Philippines. These workshops evolved into Making Museums Work: A Zero In Handbook, the first comprehensive and practical handbook on establishing and managing museums in the Philippines, of which I am the principal author.

Outside of work, I love engaging in various arts and crafts activities (my recent interest is leather crafts!), traveling to different places to experience their culture and food, and tending to my urban garden.