Heidi is currently serves as support staff as Program Facilitator, English Language Facilitator, Chair of the English Department and Team Lead at Dr. Martin Luther King Middle School, in San Bernardino City Unified School District, a school located in a low socioeconomic area with high levels of crime. She works with a small focus group of educators for the State of California on how to implement the new English Language Roadmap curriculum that covers dual language and biliteracy. Heidi Strikwerda is a 3rd year doctoral Student at the University of Redlands, with Dr. Lalas as her dissertation chair, and is doing research in her district on the connection between increasing hope, motivation, and student engagement in order to close the achievement gap for impoverished students.