I wanted to create a place on the internet where someone could come and find out a little more about me as a person. In part, because I realized I don’t really have an online presence. Social media has never appealed to me, and I prefer phone calls, emails/letters, or good old-fashioned in person human interaction.

If you want to reach me because you think we’d be friends or good collaborators, the best way is by email. The link is in the sidebar.

whoami

I grew up in a patch house in Brownsville Pennsylvania. Brownsville is a small town with a rich history that, like many parts of rural PA, went into economic decline after losing its coal mining and steel mill jobs. WQED did a great special on it.

I got my golden ticket to go to Carnegie Mellon University, where I was initially studying my two favorite subjects, physics and philosophy, to become an academic. But after a few semesters of particle physics research and a better understanding of that career path, I decided to switch to an interdisciplinary ethics degree and focus my career on technology policy research.

I was fortunate enough to receive another golden ticket to attend CMU for a second time at the information systems school, Heinz College. I focused on cybersecurity because of the job prospects and huge overlap with important and tractable policy issues. I got into AI because, well, everyone is into AI now, and I probably read too much science fiction growing up.

Along the way, I’ve done some community organizing, mutual aid work, mentoring, and teaching.

I’ve always wanted to positively impact the world as much as possible, both with my career and everyday actions. I continue to learn what a close approximation of “positive” is. I value talking to people to understand their lived experiences, challenging my beliefs, and holding room for multiple perspectives and opinions.

My main hobbies include board games, growing plants (mainly food and herbs), cooking new foods, video games, yoga, making artwork, and listening to music while staring off into space.

My future goals include building my own home, starting a family, and opening a restaurant.

artwork

If you are interested in my artwork some of my photos (and hopefully one day I’ll upload paintings) can be found here.