About me

TLDR; I am a designer, researcher, and craftsman by trade and training.

If you keep reading you'll be subjected to my 3-minute life story.

Originally from the Midwest, I headed west to study architecture in Boulder, Colorado. While I loved the rigor, and even enjoyed the occasional all-nighter in the studio, I found my ideal place within the same department's multi-disciplinary Design Studies program. This major allowed me to create my own design curriculum. In addition to architecture and urban planning studios, I was now able to take classes like Art Direction, Color Theory, Code as Art, Poetic Potential Of Computers, and Internet Dreams. Keep in mind this was in the late 90's so the work is pretty embarrassing (think Flash and FormZ).

After college, I continued west and lived in California and later, Arizona. In early 2003, I went so far west that I landed in the Far East. I briefly taught preschool in Korea and then went to Thailand to learn about earthen building. I made many mud bricks, studied Permaculture, and spent a year with Thai and Japanese organizations making things with my hands. I worked on various building projects for grassroots organizations, which eventually led me to a master's in sustainable development. I was at INBAR in Beijing and set to return to the States to begin graduate school in the fall of 2005. Then SIT designed an immersive version of the same program, but to be entirely field-based in tsunami-affected Sri Lanka, and I jumped at the offer. After nine months in-country, this unique service-learning program was cut short by the unraveling of a fragile truce, and I found myself on campus in Vermont to finish up my degree. While writing my thesis, I interned at Yestermorrow Design/Build School and then eagerly joined a non-profit creating wheelchair-accessible treehouses throughout the States.

Being a peregrinating treehouse craftsperson was a fantastic job (some of the crew even now has a TV show), but I was ready to sign a lease after years of traveling and living out of a large duffle bag. Hooked on craft, applying my design chops, insatiably curious about people, and chasing a love interest brought me to NYC. I spent nearly a decade running Analog Modern in Brooklyn, failed to launch a textile line (briefly financing a robot that could quilt?!), and have now come full circle back to the Midwest with my own family in tow. A continual learner, I just finished a grad program in Data Analytics and Visualization at MICA and am currently working as a UX/UI Designer at Global Traffic Technologies. As experience design begins to better marry the physical with the digital, I'm excited to bring my discursive experience and curiosity about the world and its people to this field.

Thank you for making it this far. If you are not a bot, I'm down for human interaction (coffee, adult beverage, or just a conversation). Let's connect; message me via the Contact page or LinkedIn. I would love to hear your story.