I wanted to create a place on the internet where someone could learn a little more about me. 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 overlap with important, tractable policy issues. I got into AI because, well, everyone is into AI now, and I probably read too much science fiction growing up.

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

I’ve always wanted to positively impact the world as much as possible 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 hobbies include board games, growing plants (mainly food and herbs), cooking new foods, video games, doing yoga, making artwork, and listening to music while staring 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.