I'm an engineer who helps leaders see what a new technology can do for them and what it will change.
For more than twenty years I've done the same job on different subjects: satellites, defense labs, graduate schools, clinics, universities, museums. Each time, I help make sense of an emerging technology so the people who have to act on it can think through what comes next.
I trained as an optical engineer and started my career designing telescopes for satellites. Since then I've taken the same approach to problems involving people and organizations.
How an engineer looks at
a non‑engineering problem.
An engineer starts by asking what problem the solution needs to solve, and for whom. I ask organizations the same question. Then I look for the hidden reasons the problem hasn't been solved yet.
From there I talk with the people doing the work, look for evidence, and look at other fields that have faced the same problem. In the end, it's all in service of one thing: helping people make better decisions about a future they can't fully see yet.
One career, three phases.
I designed lightweight space mirrors while earning a Ph.D. in Optical Engineering at the University of Arizona. At Sandia National Laboratories I designed space telescopes and built optical sensors for satellites.
At RAND I studied what new technologies could do for federal clients and what they would change, including what mature technologies can teach us about emerging ones ↗ and how professionals prepare for surprise ↗.
Since 2019 I've helped universities, research organizations and nonprofits think through what an emerging technology will change for them. I also teach at the RAND School of Public Policy.
A few things you'd learn over coffee.
I'm still a recovering Midwesterner: I'll probably be too polite when we first meet, and I'll tell you the truth when you ask me a question. I grew up in Chicago, spent ten years in the Southwest and twelve in Los Angeles, and moved to Bend, Oregon, in 2020.
Have a question you'd like to work through?
My advisory practice is Spark & Compass.