I took a bit of a wandering path to end up in IT. Born to a pair of math econ nerds while my dad was teaching at the University of Kentucky, I grew up thinking economics was the most boring topic ever. But having tested out of the freshman level classes at Williams College in my primary major, Classics (I truly enjoyed learning Latin!), I needed another track to fill my schedule. Only Economics 101 fit, and the professor was pretty cool and made the subject interesting. After graduation I took a job at American University as a police officer while working towards my Masters in Alternative Economic Systems. But then the Soviet Union collapsed, and I needed to pivot, ending up in the Math Econ program with a professor who had taught my dad as an undergraduate and considered him one of the greatest students he ever had. I could not live up to that legacy! But as a commuter cyclist, I had been tasked with starting up our department's bicycle patrol program and kept at that for a couple years while also working part-time at a nearby bike shop, taking a few different classes, and volunteering at my local American Red Cross chapter house. 

The part-time job led to an offer to be the full-time assistant manager. That led to managing a different bike shop, where a friend's older brother happened to shop. He had his own small business in desktop and web support, and after delivering a lecture on how I was wasting an excellent education, offered me a job as a paid intern. I realized deciphering HTML and code was a lot like translating Latin, and that I enjoyed talking to databases, so the internship became a fulltime job. At his small business, I got the chance to work on all aspects of the websites, from coding and database development to graphic design, content optimization, and accessibility. After a few years he encouraged me to move to a bigger company, then Analytical Sciences Inc., where I became the lead software developer on the CDC/FDA Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. The opportunity to work collaboratively on a larger team, with experts in requirements and design, SQL, JavaScript, and other coding languages really helped level-up my own skills. After what was now Constella Group bought The Futures Group International, I was offered the position of their webmaster, handling the web needs of a couple of USAID-funded projects and assisting with the corporate web integrations. I stayed on the various USAID projects throughout a series of corporate acquisitions, divestments, and mergers, supporting my coworkers through a constantly changing technology landscape. For the past three years before joining the Institute, the platforms I supported were Adobe ColdFusion, WordPress, and Microsoft's 365 offerings, particularly Teams, SharePoint, and the Power platform.