She grew up in the Boyle Heights community of Los Angeles and worked as a middle and high-school teacher there and in the surrounding area for several years. Dr. Garcia received a B.A. in sociology and Spanish from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.Ed. and secondary teaching credential from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in curriculum studies from the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC). While at UIC, Dr. Garcia taught courses in the bilingual program and worked as a community ESL teacher and director of Project FLAME, a family literacy program designed to assist mostly immigrant non-English speaking families with developing strong first language literacy practices in the home.