Personal Backstory

I’m a maximizer. Never satisfied with simply sufficient, I think of a better way to do just about everything. The wheels in my brain never stop turning.

More than anything I love to explore. New ideas, places, and designs are some of my favorite things to discover.

I was raised just outside Baltimore, MD, where I loved to ride my bike and make art. I attended Boston University and count Boston as my place of residence, despite an extended experiment in nomadic living, and now graduate school, which have found me away from Boston more often than in it.

In addition to my degree areas of design (in progress), public relations and political science, I’ve studied Arabic, German, and Japanese, theoretical calculus, and ancient Greek civilization. A compulsion for training programs means that I can – in theory- fly a plane, construct and maintain a hiking trail, pilot a boat, and perform wilderness first aid. Real world results may vary.

My interests beyond taking extraneous courses include travel, playing outdoors, and keeping up with innovations in sustainable design and urban design.

Professional Backstory

As a young student I was amazed by the impact that one individual can have in our personality-driven political system. I launched into a career in political communications, working on campaigns and in political offices. I loved working on campaigns and being such an active part of democracy and history, but there is a downside to the fast-paced political world. Too often things are done in the cheapest, most in-artful and inefficient way. This always struck me as simply blasphemous – why not do it better? In an atmosphere so resistant to change, my constant rethinking was perceived as out of place and sometimes even detrimental.

As I looked to take my critical thinking and communications skillset in a new direction, I knew I wanted to get back to the passion for art and creativity I had when I was younger, and that I wanted to be part of a more supportive, optimistic landscape. After much investigating, soul-searching and course-sampling I confirmed that design was the right next step for me and was delighted to be accepted into the Carnegie Mellon School of Design. I’m currently in the midst of my second semester as first-year graduate student in the Communications Planning and Information Design (CPID) program.

I am currently seeking design internship opportunities for Summer 2013 in the US or abroad (English-language based).