Company Info for instituteofplay.org | IcebreakerMembers
My spirit animal would be Curious George.
My curiosity for the world motivated to take a leap of faith and join NYU Abu Dhabi's inaugural class. Immersed in the liberal arts tradition, I learned to deconstruct wicked problems and the context in which they play out.
Upon graduation, my curiosity for solving problems led me to Venture For America, a two year fellowship "for young, talented grads to spend two years in the trenches of a start-up" and then Avhana Health. There I gained firsthand experience in everything from business development and strategic partnerships to product management and software engineering.
After discovering how much I enjoyed the initial stages of design research and rapid prototyping, I completed an interdisciplinary MA/MSc in Global Innovation Design jointly taught by the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. This program gave me the time and space to develop and explore my interest for multisensory interaction design, accessibility, and immersion.
In my spare time, I enjoy reading for leisure, adventuring in nature and abroad, and exploring movement through capoeira, latin dance, and parkour. 
I'm a creative technologist, artist, and educator living in Gainesville, Florida with my wife, our three cats, and ten chickens.
I have a longtime affinity for creative experimentation with technology – hardware, software, video games, and music technology. I started as a self-taught coder writing in 6502 Assembly to repurpose the Nintendo Entertainment System for creating interactive art and psychedelic visuals for performance and installation. I’ve exhibited, performed, and led workshops across the US, as well as Japan, Europe, and Australia.
I combine my love for emerging technology with two decades of experience in teaching, curriculum design, and program design and delivery across environments and formats: I taught in public middle and high schools for seven years and lectured at colleges and universities. I’ve designed and delivered professional development training and mentorship to teachers and created community-based workshops for learners of all ages.
I develop, implement and support transformative, creative learning experiences focused on teaching and learning computer science. I’ve worked with US public schools and districts, nonprofits, academic institutions, and tech industry partners across the nation and internationally in Brazil, India, and Jamaica. I have a deep understanding of the administrative systems, program design and development principles, and partnerships that are necessary to build successful and sustainable learning initiatives with world-changing outcomes.
A few highlights from my career include:
- At Code.org I managed 15 university and nonprofit partners in eight states to facilitate the training of thousands of new computer science teachers at hundreds of elementary, middle, and high schools across the United States.
- As Senior Director of Computer Science Academics at the NYC Department of Education, I led a team in designing and implementing Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s CS4All Initiative to bring computer science to all 1.1 million students in New York City.
- I was co-Principal Investigator on a multi-million dollar, four-year NSF grant to transform University of California Berkeley’s Beauty and Joy of Computing undergraduate course into a high school level, project-based alternative to the traditional AP Computer Science Principles course. 
