I serve as Clean Air Campaign Manager at PennFuture, working on air quality and industrial accountability in Allegheny County. That means building coalitions, engaging the regulatory process, and making sure the communities closest to the pollution have a real voice in decisions that affect their health.

Some of my earliest memories of caring about the environment came from scouting. As an Eagle Scout, I spent years outdoors, and canoeing the Allegheny and Susquehanna with my troop, miles from anyone else, nothing but the sound of birds and moving water, was some of the first times I understood why any of this mattered.

That curiosity led me to Washington and Jefferson College, where I graduated summa cum laude with majors in Political Science, Environmental Studies, and Spanish. While there I studied abroad at the University of Costa Rica, where I conducted original research in Spanish on why Costa Rica has such a strong environmental ethic, interviewing government officials and environmental lawyers to find out. I still keep up a weekly Spanish conversation with a former professor there.

From there I spent nearly a decade at the Carnegie Science Center, teaching hundreds of thousands of Pittsburgh-area visitors about electricity, chemistry, and how the brain works. I learned there that the most important skill in any room is knowing how to explain something clearly to someone who doesn't already agree with you. I try to bring that into everything I do.

I went on to earn an MS in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College, with a concentration in Environmental Policy, before joining PennFuture.

Outside of work I photograph nature, cook cuisines I've never tried before, watch Star Wars and political dramas, and show up to as many Pittsburgh festivals as I can.