Iris has followed her passion for creating and teaching photography and Photoshop for over twenty years. Born in Brooklyn, she moved to San Francisco to live and study after high school. After attending San Francisco Art Institute and Waseda University in Tokyo, she worked as a graphic designer and freelance photographer. Over twenty years ago she started teaching photography and art to high school and college students. In addition to teaching, she has been very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel around the world and photograph people and places that have enriched her life. For more than ten years Seattle was her home where she has taught and led workshops in digital photography and Photoshop for students of all ages and backgrounds. Iris currently lives in Portland, Oregon and looks forward to teaching older adults and the new adventures this will open up for her.

After 20 years of teaching art, photography, and English as a second language, I was ready to try something new when I moved to Portland, Oregon last year. Teaching older adults is exactly what I was looking for. It allowed me to apply my love of teaching to an eager and attentive audience that I never could have dreamed up. It was clear to me that the need to express oneself and the desire to continue learning is essential to keeping everyone at any age engaged in the world around us and with one another. Having the opportunity to work with older adults and see the joy it has brought them as they discover their own artistic vision has been a gift and is the work I want to continue doing.