Meet our Instructors
Faculty provides instruction inside San Benito County Jail and Elmwood Correctional Facility. Their dedication and commitment to teaching inside these facilities give an opportunity for the population to receive high school/GED preparation and a post-secondary education while in custody.
Nick Fortino, Ph.D.
Psychology Instructor
I teach psychology at Elmwood and San Benito County Jail. I think psychology is fascinating, and it's a subject matter that is relevant to everyone. Wherever people are, psychology is. To have an understanding of psychology is a major advantage in life. Most importantly, the more we understand about psychology, the more we can help improve the mental/emotional well-being of ourselves and others.
From the moment I began back in 2016, I discovered that in this setting are some of the most perseverant individuals in all of society. And the street-smarts that so many incarcerated individuals have translates very well to a psychology class. Plus, it's downright fun. It's amazing how much we laugh in a setting that would depress most people.
One advice I would give to students is to tap all the resources available to you. Develop personal relationships with your professors. And when the big picture seems daunting, zoom in on the small tasks that make it manageable. When the small tasks seem mundane, zoom out to see the big picture that gives those tasks meaning.
Some fun facts about me is that I'm an elite dad. Love my wifey. Watching or playing sports are my favorite hobbies. Put on some RnB music and I'll quickly slip into a golden state of mind. And I'm a Gilroy boy, born and raised.
Candace Wilson
HSE/GED Instructor
Candance teaches ENGL 756: High School Equivalency/GED Preparation at San Benito County Jail.
Kimberly Smith, M.F.A., M.S.
English Instructor
Kimberly Jean Smith has joyfully taught Creative Writing, Literature, Critical Thinking, Journalism, and Composition courses for Gavilan College in Gilroy, California since 1999. She received a Masters of Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina in 2012 and a Masters of Science from Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism, in 1993. Kimberly attended California Institute of the Arts and earned her Bachelor in Fine Arts/Films. She also attended Hartnell College in Salinas, her hometown. In addition to her work as a college instructor, she has been a journalist at daily newspapers and alternative weeklies in New York City, Southern Maine, and California and offered home-based community writing classes in Santa Cruz where she currently lives.
Kimberly's classrooms reflect her belief that writing is a physical experience as much as a mental one. She designs activities for maximum engagement of mind and body, utilizing peer-based interaction, experimentation, and play, in order for students to learn deeply, gain fluency as readers and writers, and achieve meta-cognitive awareness applicable in multiple areas of life. This awareness includes cultivating an understanding of our collective inter-relationship, the power of importance of justice and beauty, and the impact of racism and anti-blackness on all aspects of education, especially the English composition classroom.
In Fall 2018, she took a sabbatical focused on identifying best practices and program possibilities for Gavilan College’s systems-impacted students on campus and in San Benito County Jail classrooms as well as to experience firsthand optimum learning environments for students enrolling in Gavilan College’s accelerated English classrooms and non-credit programs. Check out her blogs for more information about the results of her sabbatical. Click here: Sabbatical is Ceremony for a visual essay documenting her journey.
Check out these collections of student writing from San Benito County Jail:
One Sopa: Writing from the Heart for Nourishing the Soul
Me, Myself, and Dopey: Lost and Found Expressions
Ecstasy of the Streets, Agony of these Walls
Jessica Hooper
English Instructor
Jessica Hooper has been teaching for Gavilan College for over 20 years, on the main campus and most recently at Elmwood Correctional Facility. Her courses include English Composition, reading, and literature as well as mindfulness. She has degrees and certificates from various universities. Most recently, she earned a certificate in Trauma Response and Crisis Intervention from Rutgers University. Jessica is currently working on an Engaged Mindfulness certificate from the Prison Dharma Network.
Jessica shares her teaching philosophy:
"You have a source inside you, a cool spring that sometimes stops flowing, frozen
or clogged with silt. A voice says, "Consider the situation more deeply, my friend."...
If your heart feels numb and metallic, walk out into the sun, or whatever
they mystery is that makes your inner spring well up..."
---Rumi
I believe education can be just what Rumi offers, a walk into the sun, a bright waking-up, that allows us to become bigger than we were and more completely ourselves, and further, that there's a distinct difference between knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom in contrast is a whole knowing that is borne out of enthusiasm, longing, awareness, experience, and connection; it engages our minds, hearts, and bodies and informs and changes our lives and our environments. I teach to foster and to nurture wisdom--in my students and also in myself. Our times call for us to be loud, even outrageous, with our understanding, our perspective, our compassion and our dreams. Education can give us tools to develop voice and the courage to use that voice. I work to co-create classroom spaces that cultivate all of the above.
Robert LaCarra, J.D.
Administration of Justice Instructor
Robert LaCarra is going on his eight year at Gavilan College as lead faculty of the Administration of Justice program and Co-Department Chair of the Business Department. Prior to coming to Gavilan College, Dr. LaCarra served in the U.S.M.C and U.S. Army in the United States and abroad from 1984 to 1989. After an honorable discharge, he began a 25-year career in law enforcement with the Los Angeles County Sheriff and Probation Departments in conventional assignments such as Custody, Patrol, and Juvenile Camp and Adult Field Supervision. Dr. LaCarra founch his niche in non-traditional assignments as a Correctional Rehabilitation Counselor inside the L.A. County Jail and assignment to a Gang Truce (Valley Unity Peace Treaty) between 75 Latino gangs in the San Fernando Valley, CA.
After his tenure in the Criminal Justice System, Dr. LaCarra began a second career at post-secondary institutions, both Community Colleges and 4-Year Universities. There he taught Chicanx-Latinx Studies, Statistics, Criminal Justice, Psychology, Education, and Master's and Doctoral courses at the University of Southerin California. Concurrently, in 2006, he began testifying as a Gang Expert Witness in numerous felony trials throughout the State of California.
Recently, Dr. LaCarra obtained his Juris Doctorate by completing an evening Law School and is starting a Criminal Defense Litigation Law Firm. He is committed to helping others who want to learn, contribute, and most importantly make the world a better place for ALL OF US.