Born and bred on Guam, this island girl was exposed early to a multicultural setting. Being the middle child of professional parents from the Philippines, education was always valued. Parochial schools are what Desiree attended. Through her valuable Catholic education, Desiree gained her love of learning, gaining a rich academia thus, leading her journey's path from Guam's Academy of Our Lady High School to the college arena of Michigan State University.

From a zone of the tropics to a zone of cold temperate climate, Desiree completed her BA with Honor in Urban and Metropolitan Studies with an emphasis in Urban Health Care; she continued her journey in the east coast of the United States and after six years, her path led to the west coast. After a year arriving in California, she was advised by her father to look into education as she was going through a turning point in her life, professionally and personally. Her father remembers how she happily volunteered to teach CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine or religions education) at her local parish on Guam; from this, he delivered this message to her, "Go and Teach, my daughter!"

Now after over 20 years of teaching, Desiree realizes the changes in education. Undoubtedly, her life as a Baby Boomer is now paralleled with the lives of her students in the Digital Age. Because of her love of learning, Desiree gets "her feet wet" in her own time and experiences with the Internet, software applications, mobile devices, etc; these all lead to her enrollment in the Leading Edge Digital Educator coursework. She says, "There's a new way of communicating now! I've got to learn how to infuse technology in my curriculum for my students. It's the way to go!"

And with this said, she continues on with her journey now as an international educator in Abu Dhabi.