1. My Upbringing

At an early age, I was encouraged to observe the world, be critical of the status quo and freely experiment with new innovative ideas.

Bay Area native raised by entrepreneurial parents:

• Mother: the founder/executive director of Berkeley’s first homeless youth shelter

• Father: serial founder of future-focused media tech companies 

Dual citizenship (US & UK)

Fun fact: Two-time Burning Man goer before the age of 11

2. Education

Encouraged to experiment at Montessori elementary school that fostered collaborative play, self-directed activity and hands-on learning.

Challenged with a rigorous AP curriculum and high standards of success at Head-Royce School, a top 25 private high school. 

Earned BA in Psychology cum laude from Macalester College, top 25 liberal arts college in Midwest. 

Contributed to Emmy-award winning documentary and groundbreaking qualitative and quantitative research at the Tucker Center, the first and leading research center on girls and women in sport, while in college.

3. Sports

Learned the power of teamwork and how to be a leader as a captain of every team I’ve ever been on, including on my NCAA Division III college basketball team.

Created spaces to connect across cultural barriers from playing on East Oakland teams to founding a community for 400 women to continue playing sport.

Used sport as a vehicle to build young girls into competent, confident women as a Varsity coach.

Today, I think in sports metaphors and still see myself as the college basketball point guard I once was, just now I’m leading teams in the “real world.”

An empty gym late at night is my ultimate “happy place” -- the place where I can most easily connect to my mind and body.

4. Travel

Traveled to 24 countries already in my life.

Accomplished lifelong dream of solo-backpacking through 13 countries, including through China, Nepal and Myanmar, in a year and half, treating the journey as an additional year of education after college. 

From navigating Chinese grocery stores to helping provide health clinics to women in rural Nepali villages, travel has taught me how to communicate cross-culturally and land anywhere in the world and solve problems instantly.

5. Product strategy & human-centered design

I see product strategy & human-centered design as tools to solve problems that I see in the world. 

From interviewing people as a journalist to being an entrepreneur solving a pervasive problem for female basketball players to unveiling insights to problems through UX research at IDEO, human-centered design havs woven through all aspects of my career, providing a structured blueprint that allows me to ask the right questions to get to the right solution and then making a plan to ship that solution.