Lisa taught general education for seven years, hoping to catch all of the kids who didn't receive special education but needed more support. Many students from self-contained and twice exceptional classes were also included in her class, sometimes as the first general education placement they experienced. After earning her M.A. in Special Education, Lisa’s class was a fully inclusive, multi-grade classroom in which all students received needed supports.

As part of her coursework for her Ph.D., Lisa completed the Educational Diagnostician program and most of the ABA program at UNM, which provided her with a well rounded special education training. Truly, however, her most important training has been from Lisa’s son with severe autism, who is non-verbal, and requires a wheelchair to go any distance. He is a young man of 29 now, and has been the driving force behind all that she does.

Lisa has been on the NM State IDEA advisory panel for seven years and she is the co-chair of the Advisory Council on Quality Supports for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, which works with the DDSD on the Waivers.