Bio

I grew up in the suburbs south of Boston, where I spent most of my childhood running around in the woods and causing trouble (I still like to do that when I can).  My parents sacrificed a lot so I could attend High School at Thayer Academy, where I spent lunch periods playing piano and time after school building model rockets.  Thayer taught me to make room in life for my passions and I have lived that way ever since.

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I attended Ohio Wesleyan University where I changed majors at least three times, including (but not limited to) political science, metal sculpture and modern philosophy.  At OWU, I was a proud member of the long-form improv comedy troupe “The Babbling Bishops”, played piano for the campus band “Log Jam'' and I lived in an on-campus small living unit called “The house of thought”.  When I finally settled on a major in philosophy, I traveled to the Lacandon jungle in Chiapas Mexico to live with Zapatista rebels and learn about their alternative form of governance and society.

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From college, I moved to Columbus, Ohio where I was hired as the lead pianist at Shadowbox Live, the largest resident theater company in the US.  For the next two years, I performed in roughly 8 shows a week, ranging from productions like the Broadway show RENT to original sketch comedy and rock and roll shows.  Shadowbox was an extraordinary opportunity for me to mature as a musician, to learn the inner workings of a large-scale arts organization and grow my hair out to an unseemly length

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After brief stints in the windy city and Boston, I found myself in Portland Maine, where I tried to straddle the divide between building a corporate career or crisscrossing the country in a rock band tour bus.  I also was blessed with the opportunity to sit on the board for an organization which serves asylum-seeking immigrants.  During this time, I worked as a low-carbon HVAC sales person and an accountant between long tours with the Indie band “SeepeopleS”.  I toured through 42 states, performed for tens of thousands of listeners and eventually came to the conclusion that music should be my passion, but not my paycheck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I wasn’t quite done with adventures, however.  Not long after I left the touring life, I became certified as an ESL teacher, sold my car and bought a one-way ticket to Vietnam.  I backpacked the country for a month, took a liking to Hanoi and decided to move there and start work.  I spent over 9 months helping to open a bi-lingual kindergarten.  From there, I moved west to Thailand where I spent a year working at the St. John Mary International School.

 

SJMIS is where my passion for sustainability grew from a mild interest to what would become my life’s work.  While Thailand is a stunningly beautiful country, it is choked by plastic pollution (not to mention the often hazardous air quality).  I realized that this was my opportunity to use my voice and leadership skills.  I mobilized the entire staff at my school to start integrating recycling and climate conversations into every single class curriculum - I even connected our school to the permaculture institute of Thailand and other eco-minded schools in the Bangkok area.  I am proud to say the SJMIS curriculum-integrated recycling program is going strong today and now even includes a compost program.

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During my time in Asia, I also started to perform solo as a musician.  This was a scary new adventure - after sharing the stage with others for the previous two decades, I was learning to fill it alone.  I developed a unique style of ambient/chill electronica which I still write and perform to this day.

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In 2018, I returned to the US.  I had been away from my family (especially my sister/best friend and her two precious daughters Daisy and Ella) for far too long.  Upon return, I started work at EF Education First.  While I was on-boarded as a salesperson, I quickly gravitated towards the green team and even started hosting lunch-and-learn presentations to garner support for larger sustainability programming.  This initiative caught the attention of the Director of Emerging Technology and she pulled me into her efforts building EF’s inaugural sustainability initiative: Hello Zero.  This was another chance for me to find my voice and power; to learn how to make the case for integrating sustainability into business strategy.  While working on EF’s sustainability mission, I created strategic partnerships for sustainability in and outside the company and presented directly to the global CEO. 

 

During this time, I started my sustainability education, studying greenhouse gas emissions accounting and mitigation strategies at Harvard.  When the Black Lives Matter movement returned to the center stage, I played a pivotal role in pushing it into the spotlight at EF.  I helped establish EF’s global DEI initiative and co-facilitated several company-wide forums on race and diversity.

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During the pandemic, I parted with EF and decided to take another concrete step towards a sustainability career.  I connected with a small solar firm in Boston called Omni Navitas and they took me on as a consultant.  I took two interests which they didn’t have the bandwidth for - floating solar development and previously mined brownfield development - and researched the relevant policies and states of industry adoption around them.  This was an important opportunity for me to build my research skills and further hone my ability to present to decision makers.

 

I also used the pandemic to complete my first two solo records.  After recording on five records for my various bands and other artists, I was finally creating a chance to share my own original music with the world.  You can find “Perspective” and “Mere Mortals” on Spotify, Youtube and every other major music platform