My Story

These experiences solidified my belief that challenges are opportunities to learn, grow, and innovate. With the right mindset and a willingness to adapt, I’ve learned that everything is figure-out-able. Together, let's see what we can figure out!

From a young age, my life was a series of puzzles—both literal and metaphorical. My stepdad introduced me to challenges ranging from intricate Hanayama puzzles to games like Chess and Go, all designed to sharpen my problem-solving skills. He would freely admit to experimenting with raising me, trying to engineer me to fit a certain mold. I was constantly posed both logic and morality questions, often times the goal for him was just to see how I thought, rather than the content of my answer. He pushed me to think about problems by zooming out, and consider multiple perspectives. In this way I learned to compartmentalize well, analyzing problems from multiple perspectives to find the best way forward.

The collection of physical puzzles were special though, solving these earned me small victories, like a coveted toy from Toys "R" Us. I was only able to solve a few of them as a kid and they remain a fond memory. In a similar ratcheting in difficulty challenges, I was tasked with balancing a rod on my hand while walking around the backyard. Then doing on my left hand, then switching hands, then on my fingertips, then switching between fingers and hands. These sorts of dexterity tests were some of my favorite - it got me out of the house and I was able to be alone with my thoughts while I practiced. 

Growing up the house had a lot of projects that I worked on with my mom and stepdad. From a young age I’ve been working with power tools and helping design and construct everything from a curved bridge to go over the pond, to a whole second story balcony off the main bedroom. Learning the safe way to do these things taught me self-reliance and invaluable life skills. Doing a lot of this was overwhelming at times, but I had a good coach, my stepdad would repeat that everything is doable and figure-out-able - and it really lead me to me to be tenacious and confident with problem solving. Now, I take pride in fixing things around my house and figuring out how to improve things here and there. My friends know that if they need help with anything around their homes, I’m the one to call. 

While my parents were good role models, I was also well acquainted with their friends and had several mentors involved in the hustle of startup culture and silicon valley. I got inspired with their big ideas, and especially the vibe of wanting to change the world. I joined a startup and moved to San Francisco and was caught up in hustle culture. I learned so much during this process, my take-aways are that in silicon valley they're less about making positive change and more about disruption and making money and it taught me that I want to focus on those actually making positive change in the world, everything is feedback, and there are very few people with obnoxious amounts of money that are also ethical. My positive take-aways are - that the power of collaboration, and iterating ideas with a team is fantastic - I got to see some truly complex problems have solutions presented in teams where everyone was empowered - especially those with the lowest positions. It was notable where people approached their work with empathy and kindness, and that is the model I seek to follow. 

The mix of homeschooling, Montessori and Waldorf schooling in my early years was all about learning in unique ways and not fitting into the standardized educational system we see in much of America. Storytelling was a central part of this as we tend to pay more attention to, and remember, lessons couched in stories. Many topics in school can be taught through learning the stories of us, of how we came to be, how things changed, and most of my teachers understood and valued this. I remember coming into class for the first day and being handed crayons and colored pencils. The teacher had drawn and written a story on the board. By copying it down after the hearing the teacher embellish the story, we developed our own lesson-books. 

My mom is a big crafter, winning awards for her quilts and pies, and she made sure any child of hers would grow up learning some of her skills. From sewing my own clothes, to cooking dinner for the family, exploring self-expression through art and making was a big part of my childhood. The sanctity of 'breaking bread' with people and providing that space is something we still share today. I will never forget the summers experimenting with different sorbet recipes with her, and in the fall hosting multi-course meals for friends. She continually impresses me with her ability to come up with unique ways of creating around her, and I will go to her for advice for the rest of my life. So, for my whole life I’ve had the encouragement to express myself in all sorts of forms. 

When I was 14 my mom and stepdad took me to Burning Man, it was a revelation. Immersed in a world that celebrated radical self-expression, I was captivated by the blend of art, resilience, and community. The event challenged me to think beyond practicality and embrace the power of creative risk-taking. In the year prior to attending Burning Man, my mom and I learned to spin fire poi and I got to be apart of the spinners around the Man before it burned. The whole experience of being in this very intense situation showed me how creativity could be a bridge to deeper self-discovery. As you mentally overcame the elements finding the rawness of our existence was a profound and beautiful experience. 

Both of these values would come together when I finally found D&D. It’s not just a game—it’s a way of exploring identity, connection, and meaning. It’s a space where we can safely experiment with different parts of ourselves, step into new roles, and tell stories that resonate on a deep, personal level. It is a vehicle for vulnerability, and that can lead to some powerful personal exploration and connections. We get to witness and shape moments of triumph, loss, growth, and redemption—both for the characters and the people behind them. Indeed, D&D and TTRPGs have a profound way of being therapeutic. We can’t help put parts of ourselves into our characters, even when we’re trying not to. But now we’re bleeding into my third core value - it’s all about people. 

Prioritizing people means looking beyond the immediate to build something sustainable, something that benefits everyone involved. It means balancing the macro and the micro, understanding both the grand arcs of a system and the quiet, personal moments that shape our lives. Whether in community, collaboration, or creativity, success shouldn't be measured in isolated wins but in the strength of the connections we foster and the impact we leave behind. While designing experiences, products, games, or marketing, caring about the person engaging in the content is the most important thing to me. Vulnerability is the foundation of connection, so by finding ways of creating environments that help people feel heard and cared for, we can create space for us to be vulnerable. It’s through moments of openness and empathy that we build trust, foster understanding, and create transformative experiences. 

The other two points were stories where I show examples, but this a short tale about a turning point in my life and hopefully gives some insight into me and how I operate.

Early on, my stepdad encouraged me to listen and observe social dynamics during gatherings, planting the seeds of my fascination with understanding what makes us tick. This lead to near weekly debriefs to discuss what I'd noticed. Seeing my interest he gave me books by psychologists like Oliver Sacks and Paul Ekman, which fed my desire to understand those around me. I latched onto Ekman’s work on micro-expressions and the psychology of deception. I thought I would study that in college and find a job at his company or as a profiler for the FBI. I am very grateful that didn’t happen, but for a solid 10 years, that’s what I thought my path would be. 

Let's fast forward to that startup I joined in my early 20s, specifically the day I quit. I realized that I was not liking who I was becoming there. 

Someone who would climb over anyone in order to elevate themselves. So, with no plan in place, just a deep seeded need to change my environment - I quit. Luckily a mentor of mine saved my spiraling panic and invited me to attend the Being Human conference! An annual conference where psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists would come together to share their research. Ekamn would headline the event and I felt pieces slide into place, I would find a way of interning with him or a company he works with, then finish my degree, and apply to become a profiler. Plan back in place, I attended the conference. I remember enjoying the presentations, but the whole time thinking about what my next steps could be. Ekman finally took the stage, and instead of discussing deception and working with different law-enforcement agencies - he gets up and announces his deep gratitude to discuss his latest research he did with his good friend the Dalai Lama on empathy, vulnerability, and how these are the root of human connection. This would be a profound pivot point in my life, where I would fully shed the version of myself I had lived as, and would start to embrace a different path. Everything seem to ‘click’ in a weird way - I didn’t want to become the shark-like version of myself, or the cog in the machine version that wouldn’t value my own happiness. I would go on to find that the “zoom out” prompts I was posed as a kid, combined with the urge to see things from multiple perspectives, would end with finding an academic home in anthropology. The natural inclination to think about people and cultures from their perspective is ingrained in the anthropological lens. In some ways this has made me feel like an alien, sometimes struggling to connect and live in the moment, but I digress. I've come a long way, and now I find joy in building community and finding ways to strengthen connection. This story, doesn't directly highlight why I think it's so important to prioritize people, but it was a significant point in my life where I chose to put happiness and health at the top. 

I think the impact of companies or groups prioritizing people is something that we know when we see it. We can feel it. They can be little things, like providing disposable earplugs at venues that can get loud, to big things like altering buildings to be more accessible. In America specifically, there is this overwhelming pressure view your productivity, or your value to a company above all else, but if we value and prioritize people, that can't be the most important thing. We must put our lives before our jobs, and that unfortunately requires companies to recognize that constant growth isn't sustainable. 

At the end of the day, this, is all we have.