The thread between all of my jobs – researcher, science journalist, anthropologist – is my love of researching a topic, finding the “key” to a story or problem, and then making an impact with it.

My diverse training and background in both quantitative and qualitative analyses allows me to be comfortable using a variety of different methods, including social media data, analytics, ethnography, interview, surveys, statistics, and meta-studies of secondary research.

I am tuned in to the intricacies of human behavior, pick up on patterns quickly and love finding connections between seemingly random things, like teddy bears and space travel. I am passionate about exploring creativity and design, usability, environmental enrichment, sustainability, and informal learning. I feel so lucky that my career has focused on technology and social media, and how those influence all of my passions mentioned above.

One nice perk to being a researcher is the variety of ways it can be shared and applied. I have written my work into proposals, white papers, business intelligence reports, blog posts, science articles, academic articles, technical articles, website pages, newsletters, podcasts, PowerPoints, brochures, and more.

During my 12+ years of research experience I have also had the opportunity to manage teams for over 5 of those years, as diverse as global teams spread across three time zones to a group of middle schoolers. I have managed people and teams as part of research projects, residential construction, and fundraising events. I love working with teams that are passionate about the mission behind their work, open to hashing out ideas and problems together, and love talking shop or geeking out about new technologies or discoveries.

I like to work hard. I even (sometimes) enjoy crunch time. I don’t believe in ongoing 70-hour work weeks, nor do I believe that they produce great results (and there is lots of research that supports this; I even wrote about it). I love to do business travel when the need arises, although I’m always impressed at what can be accomplished via a video call.

I live and play in Seattle, WA. I have WAY too many hobbies: hiking, toy bombing, traveling, kickboxing, slow food, gardening, crafting, and reading anything I can get my hands on.

 

 

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