After graduating from MIT, I spent over a decade building a career as a product leader in software, from well-known companies like Dropbox and Salesforce to tiny, mission-driven startups building campaign tech for Democrats. Simultaneously, I’ve always been a dedicated volunteer and community organizer, focusing primarily on voter rights and prison book access. Bridging the worlds of tech and organizing was sometimes awkward, occasionally tricky, and always rewarding: I could bring a more empathetic and creative approach to my product work, and a focus on data, tools, and process to volunteering.
I found myself in frequent conversations with friends and colleagues who knew I have a foot in voter access and get-out-the-vote work, who wanted my take on effective giving: if they want to elect Democrats, should they give to campaigns or to PACs or to national get-out-the-vote organizations or to someone entirely different? If they want to forward the clean energy transition, or further abortion rights, or house the unhoused, or feed the hungry, or support immigrant justice, or support any of a thousand other worthy causes, who was really doing good work in the space? How can they know their money is being used effectively to forward these causes?
I love helping people answer these questions, to figure out how to use what money they have to build the world they want to live in. I tailor my approach and recommendations to your financial situation and your social and political priorities, so you can be sure your money is going to the causes you care most about.
Miscellaneous facts:
- According to my diploma I majored in atmospheric chemistry in college, although in practice I studied “student government and volunteer groups” (MIT doesn’t give degrees for that, alas).
- In my free time, I hike, read, watch Only Connect, and go to every NC Courage home game.
- I believe that if you read 50-100 pages of a book (how many depends on the length of the book) and don’t like it, you should stop reading the book. There are so few hours in this life; don’t waste them with something you’re not enjoying when there are so many books to be read.
- I do sometimes miss the satisfaction of launching a feature and being able to obsessively watching click metrics. Elections and organizing work on a very different timescale.
- My dog is the only being I’ve ever met who has — multiple times — sneezed so hard she’s fallen off the couch. She’s a very silly dog and pollen season comes for us all.
Hydrangea Advising 