With a proven track record of teaching at many levels, from elementary school through college, Annaliisa Wilson is passionate about connecting with students and supporting them to achieve their personal goals. She has been a Montessori educator, a professor at San Diego City College, and an English professor for a charter high school where students graduate with an associate’s degree. At San Diego City College, she supported students who were juggling full-time coursework with full-time personal responsibilities and challenges and helped connect them with adequate assistance from faculty and college services.
As a military spouse, Annaliisa relocated to Northwest Florida, where she began teaching English at the local state college and secured a tenure-track position as the English professor for their charter high school. Meanwhile, she began PhD coursework in English at Florida State University.
Last year, Annaliisa returned to Southern California to be near family as she began a new chapter personally and professionally. After becoming a single mom to her four young children, she began training as a postpartum doula, baby-wearing educator, and lactation educator. She currently works within the birth and postpartum community supporting and educating caregivers from diverse backgrounds, is pursuing work in higher education, and is finishing her PhD coursework — all in pursuit of supporting others in achieving success.
Hannah-Marie Scott is 21, and currently studying psychology at California State University, Northridge. She plans to attend graduate school in the fall of 2021 to study school psychology. She loves her volunteer work as a public school board member to help better the lives of learners, parents, and staff, as well as educate herself of the inner workings of a charter school and practices of governance on behalf of the public.
Marcia Reily has more than 19 years of experience in education, having taught pre-k, elementary, and middle school students in the area of special education for many of those years. When she was not in the classroom, she had the opportunity to serve students and families in leadership roles at the site level, as an assistant principal, district level, as a teacher specialist, and most recently, the county level, as a coordinator. Marcia holds a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), a master’s degree in Special Education from California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She has a Doctor of Education (Ed. D) in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Special Education from Grand Canyon University (GCU). She also has an Educational Specialist Credential with an Autism authorization and an Administrative Services Credential. Marcia was named Masonic Teacher of the Year as a middle school special education teacher and Kiwanis Teacher of the Year as an elementary special education teacher. One of her greatest accomplishments was training for and finishing the Los Angeles Marathon as a volunteer mentor with the Students Run Los Angeles (SRLA) program.
Her work as a Coordinator with the Center for Distance and Online Learning (CDOL) at the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) revolves around supporting staff who support students. She coordinates a Suicide Prevention Ongoing Resiliency Training program referred to as SPORT2. She also coordinates the Promising Learners Project that supports arts integration and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) for TK-3rd grade foster youth students to proactively increase school engagement.
Looking back, as a high school student, Marcia faced many struggles. In April of her junior year, she went into labor in her math class, and after taking a few weeks off, she returned to complete her junior year – one of the hardest things she ever did. In reflection of that time, Marcia remembers that not one single administrator or counselor spoke to her about her pregnancy before going into labor that April day. Therefore, Marcia’s focus and passion are to help ensure students have a safe and supportive environment in which to learn, and this is why she is honored to serve as an Empower Generations Board Member.
Marcia lives in Santa Clarita with her wonderful husband, Mike, and very spoiled dog Briscoe. Their son John lives in Los Angeles with his fiancé Allie, two rescue dogs, and works for the television industry.
Michelle Fluke has over 25 years of experience building community through her nonprofit work focused on the health and wellness industry. As Executive Director of Antelope Valley Partners for Health, she provides administrative oversight, overseeing all accounting functions, handling all aspects of human resource management as well as grant writing, strategic planning, and acting as community health and services liaison to the Antelope Valley. Under her leadership, problem solving, and innovative thinking, Michelle has increased AVPH’s strength as the foundation of collaboration in the Antelope Valley that focuses on improving the health and wellness of the community.
Michelle is also active in several grassroots community groups. She is the vice-chair of the Lancaster Healthy Communities Commission, a steering committee member for the AV Homeless Coalition, and represents the Antelope Valley as an appointed member of the County of Los Angeles Population Health Task Force.