Let's Rise Up!
I'm an activist, techie, yogi, polyglot, and 'little d' democrat.
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The cause of my lifetime is making democracy work better, and we've got a long way to go.
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Together with my co-founder Andrew Koneschusky, I'm starting a new venture called WeAgree that seeks to disrupt the political duopoly.
Democracy Reformer
I'm passionate about fixing the systems of American democracy, so that it actually represents the will of the American people. I've been a member of the SF Elections Commission, contributed to the Voting Information Project at Google, was a technician at the DC Board of Elections, served on election observation and assistance missions to Kosovo and Ukraine, and supported democracy movements around the world at the National Democratic Institute (NDI).
Activist
I brought a First Amendment lawsuit against the Golden Gate Bridge and the California Highway Patrol after they stopped me from demonstrating with a sign because I didn’t have a permit. We argued that the permit requirement was unconstitutional, and we won. As a result, you can now protest with signs at the Golden Gate Bridge.
Techie
I'm an alum of Google and startups (BlueLabs and Analytics Media Group).
At Stanford I studied a unique program called Symbolic Systems (‘SymSys’), which encompasses Computer Science as well as Cognitive Science and Linguistics. I can’t say enough good things about it! My concentration was in Rationality and Decision Making.
SymSys happens to have been the major of several of Silicon Valley all-stars.
Yogi
I do AcroYoga, aerial silks, and trapeze, and I like to get around town on an EUC.
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In DC, silks and trapeze can be done at TSNY, in Navy Yard. In San Francisco, I recommend the Circus Center.
AcroYoga classes happen in DC at Yoga District, and there is an AcroYoga group on Facebook that does meetups on Sundays at Dance Loft on 14th or in Meridian Hill Park when the weather is good.
Polyglot
I love languages and am fascinated by the ways that they shape our ability to think.
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I grew up between Anchorage, London, and Brussels, where I learned French. In college I shifted to studying Japanese, and spent a semester at the Stanford Center in Kyoto and then worked at a Japanese tech startup in Tokyo.
In recent years I’ve developed a special love of Brazil, where I now visit every year, and have done my best to learn Portuguese.