Compelling data combined with good design can change minds and hearts. I am a map nerd, information designer, geographer, and human observer. I am fascinated by the stories that live in data, in observations, in processes, and in conversations—and I strive to make those stories visible.

My story begins with water. I spent five, foundational years on the high seas working as a scientist aboard Brigantine-rigged student sailing vessels. At sea, I became enamored of the language of data. Below the surface, data revealed the ocean to be a multi-dimensional tapestry of physics, chemistry, and biology. My students and I pored over neon transects through swirling surface currents. I found a thrill in conjuring the scarlet bullseye of the North Equatorial Current out of rushing torrents of numbers, and in tracing a crisp nucleus of an emerald chlorophyll maxima across latitudes and hundreds of meters below the surface.

My fascination with cartography began aboard ships. Marine charts are a masterpiece of meaning. Near shore, we picked our way around symbols for reefs, underwater rocks, and bobbing nuns. Offshore, we penciled a slow line across a blank white page, marked only by graticules and a compass rose. In the same instant, maps can anchor us in where we are now, our memory of place, and the promise of new exploration. And they have a unique and compelling power to make visible what lies below the proverbial ocean surface—even observations about our world that are not materially visible on Earth.

Spending time at sea makes our deep and important human connections to water and nature so clear and palpable. It is in the bonds we forge between shipmates, the vessel that carries us, the commonalities of the human experience in every port, and the recurrent human imprint along every shoreline of the oceans. Viewing land from sea makes climate change, social equity, and biodiversity loss visible on a daily level. I have been following these themes upstream and inland—in pursuit of a creative learning process to bridge science, nature, humanity, and art.

Bio: I am the Senior Director of Data, Design, and UX at American Forests, a national non-profit dedicated to urban Tree Equity and climate-smart large landscape restoration and reforestation. I specialize in cartography, interactive design, storytelling, and UX design. I have previously worked in freelance design, at Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, and at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Office of Research and Development. I have authored publications for Frontiers of Marine Science, Environmental Management, Estuaries and Coasts, and the U.S. EPA. I studied Interaction Design at Rhode Island School of Design, hold a master's in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island, a bachelors in biology from Carleton College, and a 100 Ton Master’s License from the U.S. Coast Guard.