My passions for robotics, virtual reality (VR), neuroscience, Sustainability, and gastronomy have driven my career. I write in-depth features about determined people who think beyond the traditional limits of their fields by taking groundbreaking, interdisciplinary approaches to some of our world's most significant challenges. I also write about topics that matter to me, like how families can waste less food and why reducing clothing impacts climate change for The Washington Post or how streamlining cancer clinical trials is saving more lives for Atlassian. After reporting on immersive and virtual reality spaces providing respite for over 750,000 front-line healthcare workers for Neo.Life and WIRED, I was awarded a fellowship with MIT Technology  Review. My subsequent feature, "A Hero Behind the VR Headset," about Stanford Neuroscientist, Dr. Walter Greenleaf, was just nominated for a Front Page Award, recognizing journalistic achievement by female journalists. My collaboration led to working with Dr. Greenleaf as an editor and contributing writer for Applied Virtual Reality in Healthcare: Case Studies and Perspectives, a widely-used, state-of-the-art textbook used by healthcare systems and universities. And the best part--helping 66 research scientists and technologists make their writing more accessible. You can read my intro here.

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I'm most known in the tech world for my role in the formation of the community-driven website XOOM (XMCM), the world's seventh-most popular site, in 1999. XOOM merged with NBC (and re-christened "NBCi") after a successful IPO in one of the first significant efforts by a traditional media company to harness the power of the web. After leading many startups and managing a global hedge fund, I decided to make a major pivot by fusing my broad expertise with my passion for compelling storytelling. I subsequently earned a Written Arts degree from Bard College, where I studied Sustainability, and an MFA in Creative Non-fiction from The New School. At Bard, I created and led workshops in women's and homeless shelters, offered many hours of writing workshops at elementary schools, collected and distributed over 1500 books to shelters, and stocked those shelves with reading material. That program carries on today. I also was the editor of many literary journals, which have won awards, and I am a judge for essays for organizations like Scholastic. It wasn't until I returned to college to study literature and creative writing that I came to appreciate that bridging the worlds of humanities and business would empower my writing about the social, political, and economic consequences of technology and science. 

 

When I applied for MFA programs, I wrote, "I want to amplify silenced voices" on my applications. I have since come to appreciate the power of that statement. I wrote a feature for Input Magazine about Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan, a British roboticist with ALS. He sacrificed his voice box and employed cutting-edge technology and advanced surgeries to extend his life. That long-form feature, "The World's First Cyborg," explored what it's like to live with a fully-functioning mind trapped in a failing body. My story was retweeted over 50,000 times, featured on Longreads, trended on major news feeds, and was spotlighted by the influential Hollywood journal "The Optionist," a publication for those in the entertainment industry seeking film projects. I'm grateful that it catalyzed conversations about how technology can extend lives and who gets to decide when we die. Today, I sit on the Board of Directors of The Scott-Morgan Foundation. I also write and edit stories about people in the ALS community affected at myright2thrive.org, an initiative of the Foundation. 

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I'm running on all cylinders when lifting up marginalized voices and shining a light on good people doing extraordinary things. "Like a drop in the vast ocean," writes Margaret Weis, "each of us causes ripples as we move through our lives." I'm using my words to send ripples in all directions.

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Thanks for reading!