It was Inauguration Day. We had the day off, but work found me anyway. By mid-afternoon, the news started flooding in: An Executive Order dropped.  We were no longer U.S. Digital Service.  We were now DOGE… er.. US DOGE Service.  We were going to report to the White House Chief of Staff, instead of the […]

I didn’t know a lot about civic tech when I joined Truss in 2018, but I had heard about the early impact of two new teams in the federal government, the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and 18F (named after their HQ at 1800 F Street). I was extraordinarily lucky that those early folks at USDS […]

All week, I was looking forward to Saturday July 28th. Then it came. I woke up at 5am because I couldn’t sleep. In a few hours, we would be headed to a walking tour of a neighborhood well-known for gun violence and I was getting nervous. I didn’t want to back out, but I was […]

I was so nervous, I felt nauseous. It was Saturday August 11th at 9am and I was on my way downtown to see my mom for the first time in ten years. Would I remember what she looked like? Would she remember what I looked like? Do I look anything like I did at 22 […]

I’ve been thinking a lot about a recent event I attended featuring Jennifer Brandel of Hearken. If you haven’t heard of Hearken, the best way I can explain it is to send you to Curious City, a WBEZ program she also founded that has served as Hearken’s inspiration. It’s a model of journalism rooted in […]

Several years ago, after not speaking to or seeing my mom in many many months, I got a text message asking me to meet her at the Starbucks at Eastview Mall. At the time, I thought the mall Starbucks to be such an odd choice of location, but I’d understand why she chose it later […]

You already know that after several years, I stepped off the startup hamster wheel. While I’m sure that separation will give me more and much better perspective, I’ve been itching to get some of my experiences down on paper. I’ve been given a wealth of opportunity in this community and am thankful for all it […]

Here’s a little story about a lot of screw-ups that finally pushed me to design my work around my life, instead of the other way around.

It took writing the following into the card for a departing colleague to remind me of the kind of work that sets my heart ablaze: “I don’t know what to say other than thank you. You challenged me without even knowing it. You made me think bigger. Made me aspire to be something greater. Showed […]