I started my career in video games, working on Tony Hawk at Activision. Before long, I found myself teaching the next generation of artists at the Academy of Art University, The Art Institute, and CCA. It was my first taste of the satisfaction that comes from helping other people grow.

Building skate parks and training artists didn’t feel like enough. In 2007, a TED Talk by Jeff Skoll and Stephen Kinzer’s book All the Shah’s Men inspired me to create something that mattered. The result was Operation Ajax, an interactive graphic novel about the 1953 Iranian coup. It was the hardest project I’d ever taken on, but it won a Webby and an FWA, was published by Verso Books, and landed me my first speaking engagement at SXSW in 2012.

Standing on that stage, I discovered how much I loved sharing what I’d learned. That experience launched a multi-year international speaking tour across Latin America and Europe.

Looking back, I can see a pattern I’ve repeated ever since. I get inspired by something new, take on an ambitious challenge, struggle through it, learn, and share those lessons with others. Sharing introduces me to new people and ideas, and the cycle begins again.

This process led me to immersive experiences for Sony, the NFL, and Westfield, virtual reality at JauntXR, where I developed a program to support emerging creators, and eventually Booz Allen Hamilton, where I coached senior leaders at HHS through the COVID-19 response as a communications expert.

Along the way, I learned to move comfortably between creative teams, corporate environments, and government agencies. While different worlds, many of the same challenges: making sense of complexity, bringing people together, and helping good ideas become reality.

Most recently, I trained as a Certified Integral Coach at New Ventures West, giving me a deeper set of tools for work I’d been drawn to throughout my career: helping people build self-awareness, communicate with confidence, and move through change.

Today, I bring these experiences together through speaking, facilitation, and coaching, partnering with individuals and organizations to navigate change, develop new capabilities, and bring meaningful ideas to life.