About me (note that after several attempts, still a draft)

Born in the seventies, youth in the eighties, studies in the nineties. I'm a researcher and engineer. And I'm passionate about using research and engineering to help folks. I studied civil engineering as an undergraduate and production engineering and urban planning as a graduate student. However I don’t consider myself an expert in any one particular area—I’m more of a generalist.

Currently I'm a PhD candidate in Urban and Regional Science in the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University supervised by Dr. Walter Gillis Peacock. My doctoral research focuses on hurricane risk on coastal communities using causal probabilistic analysis through influence diagrams (Bayesian networks), which includes mapping risk for possible better risk communication.

I research to improve practices on risk assessment and management related to natural hazards with social impacts. The research areas I focus on are at the nexus of the sub-fields of urban geography and human ecology, and include using Geographic Information Science for spatial analyses of risk; urban hazards and risk assessment; social impacts; and community-based participatory research.

I love teaching and preparing presentations. I am privileged to teach Urban Analytical Methods, Introduction to QGIS, and Spatial Analysis in R. I also work as research assistant on hurricane evacuation studies, where I contribute producing maps and spatial analysis, and to the development of behavioral surveys.

At work, I’m a coding and reproducible research enthusiast, intensely employing open-source software. I am an avid R user, who loves GIS, statistics, and fancy data visualizations. When I'm not at the computer, I enjoy building with Legos, biking, and traveling with my family.