Norma-Jean.Strickland
My teaching experience began in 1997 in Southern California working in a highly specialized field called assistive technology, which is hardware and/or software for people with disabilities (“PWDs”). My main emphasis has been teaching Microsoft Office for both the Mac and PC for those with profound learning and/or physical disabilities. I have worked privately with over 650 individuals covering a range of over 60 disabilities, with a specialty in quadriplegics, traumatic brain injury, stroke, cerebral palsy and learning disabilities. I attended industry conferences for several years and was also a guest speaker and panelist for several years. For 8+ years, I was on the Board of the State of California Governor’s Committee for the Employment of Persons with Disabilities, which included attending monthly Board meetings for the Media Access Office (“MAO”) in Los Angeles. The MAO was formed in 1980 and serves as a liaison between PWDs and the entertainment industry. They have an annual awards ceremony that rivals the Oscars and I have met many famous people, including George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and many others.
I moved to Arizona in 2009 and have been teaching CIS105 (and more) since the fall of that year to the present. I have been on more than one MCCCD campus, including Early College High School, ACE Program students, foreign students and former military. I have now been at Estrella Mountain since the fall semester of 2011.
As an aside, when I originally moved to Southern California, I was a professional musician, including being an on-air radio host at both of San Diego's classical music radio stations. That was when my professional writing and storytelling career began, back in 1984. I am a published PBS television Emmy Award-winning celebrity ghostwriter for Simon & Schuster, as well as being a published author in my own voice under a Hay House imprint.
I am a CRLA Nationally Certified Tutor and on campus I have served as a Writing Tutor working with hundreds of students across all disciplines. I have also been an Instructor/Facilitator through EMCC’s Community Education Department.
In my spare time, I have served as Senior Editor and/or Subject Matter Expert for various online PreK-12 and/or higher education software development companies assisting with curricula and/or content development. I continue to expand my creativity as a professional writer and editor, with my contribution as author and editor for a new collaborative book scheduled for release in late September 2021. NOTE: The book just referenced became an International #1 Amazon Best-Seller. I contributed as author and editor with the same publisher for a second collaborative book released in late Fall 2022 with similar success.