🌱 I was born in Charlottesville, VA in 1987 and grew up in Harrisonburg, VA. I was homeschooled in elementary school. My brother Josh had cancer when I saw six and seven. He wrote a national bestseller and AppleTV show that won an Emmy (NYT review here). My mom got Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma when I was ten. My parents enrolled me at Blue Ridge Christian School. I worked on a 2,000 acre dairy farm and in a food truck.

🏫 I attended Harrisonburg High School. I was track and soccer team captain, All Region Soccer, and All State Track. I was elected student body president, Youth Governor of Virginia, and homecoming and prom king. I attended a three week Virginia Governor’s School language immersion that kicked off my love of Spanish. I gave the commencement address at Harrisonburg High School a few years after I graduated, and shared about when I lived without housing for a summer in Chicago.

🎓 I majored in philosophy at Harvard (Mather, ‘09) with a focus on ethics., and cleaned bathrooms as a Dorm Crew Captain (~2.5K hours). I was Student Body VP and President. I was the student rep on the President’s Committee on Improved University Policing and Administrative Board Review Committee. A delegation of Ivy League Student Council Presidents that I was part of worked with the Chinese government and participated in an Olympic flame ceremony (itinerary). As Senator Mark Obenshain’s Legislative Aide I wrote a minor piece of healthcare legislation. I earned a high school history and English certification at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and taught a year at Cambridge Community Charter School.

📚 I have an interest in ethics, law, and the social contract. In philosophical questions and style I’ve tried to emulate and build on Tommie Shelby, Susan Wolf, and Kyle Whyte. Professor Shelby advised my honors senior thesis ("Only God Can Judge Me: Codes of Conduct in the Non-Ideal Political Climate of Tupac’s America”). In 2010-11 I worked for Akin Gump’s Supreme Court Practice in DC as a writer for SCOTUSblog.com. My best articles were Imprecise Language & Citizens United Polling and Cameras & the Supreme Court.

🇪🇺 After college I backpacked from Turkey to Spain with my best friend Jim. We were students at L’Abri, a Swiss philosophical community. We backpacked, hitchhiked, and visited twelve countries on a $3,000 budget. Overall I’ve now been to 27 countries.

🇦🇷 I was a US State Department Fulbright Scholar in San Juan, Argentina. I taught philosophy in Spanish at the National University of San Juan. I published articles on sundials and education. I enjoyed friendships, soccer, food, dancing, and fun. I felt deep connections, relational and communitarian beliefs, and ecological concern.

🌈 In 2011 I moved to San Francisco. I worked on the Facebook Privacy Team. I was the third member of the Facebook Product Privacy Team and was the PM for Facebook.com/dyi. I have always used a flip phone.

📈 In 2012 I became a Student Fellow at the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession (2012-14). I used R and Python to analyze business influence on the Supreme Court. I gave a talk at Harvard Law. I co-founded Plotly and was COO three years. I led product, grew the team to eighty, & led growth to get to 1M users & $2M ARR. I was selected for the Top 40 Data Mavericks Under 40, the "definitive list of the most interesting & innovative people in data" (2015).

🌎 In 2015 I wrote two technical articles as part of a partnership with The White House for the Obama Climate Data Initiative that deeply impacted me. I moved towards non-profit, spiritual, ecological, and community work. I was a Product Manager for and launched Change.org membership, which reached 250K+ recurring contributors. I was brought on by Water.org to build and launch Water Equity. We've raised $508M and reached 9.7M people with water and sanitation through 1.7M microloans (98% to women). I’d had a transactional relationship with water but have tried to move towards a spiritual one. I worry that we’ll run out of potable water ~2040.

🌿 In 2016 I was a Land Stewardship Apprentice at Green Gulch Zen Center. My stay, Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind, and the Tao Te Ching helped me build daily yoga and sitting practices. I build my days around them. In 2016 I saw dozens of colors I didn’t know existed with color blind glasses. I felt connected to a divine presence. I have sought interdependent, reciprocal, and kinship-based relationships with people, ecology, land, life, and the universe.

🔥 Since 2017 I’ve worked for Burning Man Project, the non-profit organizer of an 80,000 person art and community campout. I am the Director of Fly Ranch. We’ve converted a 5.5 sq mi (3.6K acres) dump, landfill, and junkyard into a living laboratory, thriving farm and garden, and rural center for interactive arts, community participation, and land stewardship. I helped facilitate and support Burning Man’s 2030 Sustainability Roadmap. I’m driven by a hope for resilience and possibility.

📖 I grew up on Manahoac land, went to college on Massachusett land, lived on Huarpe land in Argentina, & live on Ramaytush Ohlone & Numu land. I donate a percent of my salary to people whose land I work on.

💍 My fiancée Joni is the love of my life. We have intertwined lives. My mom taught her to swim when she was four, our dads were elders and deacons at church together, our moms ran a mom’s prayer group for homeschool moms, and our siblings were close friends. I surprised her with a proposal at our Palette birthday party. Her engagement ring has stones from all four sides of our families. See: Instagram (proposal and ring) Facebook (proposal and ring), LinkedIn (proposal and CBS) TikTok (proposal).

🤸 Reach out. Feel free to write and say hey, send book recommendations, or tell me about your favorite place in nature to look at colors.