It's always been from head to hands.
I grew up in Seattle and studied 3D modeling and animation at a local tech college, then illustration and design at Cornish College of the Arts. My first job was brand and identity work at Urban Influence Design Studio, with long nights in sign shops cutting vinyl, screen printing, laser cutting, and fabricating by hand. From there I apprenticed with a well-known Japanese Zen ceramist, and joined Funko as its third toy developer.
Then software found me.
A single Startup Weekend changed the direction of my life and career. It led to a role at Übermind and Deloitte Digital. That same weekend produced my first tech company, which went through TechStars Seattle, raised venture capital, built a team and shipped social games until being acquired. I kept organizing hackathons, and my second company came out of one: Freak’n Genius went through the TechStars Microsoft Accelerator, embedded with the Kinect team, and built YAKiT, an animation tool for kids reaching millions of pockets. After that, Campfire with IBM Watson and Amazon Alexa, a connected storytelling product for kids and families.
Then ten years exploring the globe.
For the past decade I have worked fully nomadic, consulting on experience design for global community events, and zero-to-one product development for creative teams that need an idea turned into something people can hold and test. Since 2020 I have taught ethical AI for tooling and systems, rebuilt creative pipelines around it, including 30 AI integrations at Emmy Award-winning Felix & Paul Studios and a mastermind cohort of creative professionals at Experience House.
Ask me sometime about the Ecuadorian cave expedition with a neuroscience researcher and composer, Tibetan lama and biometric mental wellness support, Mayan elders and their technology of time, or blasting a snapshot of humanity toward Alpha Centauri with SETI...
