About Me

I grew up in Vermont and stayed in New England for my undergraduate work at Brown University, where I concentrated in comparative literature and French.

I spent two years in Madagascar as a Peace Corps volunteer, where I did community development and natural resources management. I lived in a small village bordering a nature reserve in the dry deciduous forest of the west of the island. I also learned to speak Malagasy (a mind-boggling experience for a person who has only studied romance languages).

After my stint in the Peace Corps, I decided to visit the west coast, and ended up staying. Before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area for graduate school, I lived just outside of Yosemite National Park, where I worked for the park as an archaeologist and a cultural resources specialist.

I received my PhD in linguistics from UC Berkeley. I currently live in Oakland with my family. We like to take road trip adventures, and when home, try to get around by bike as much as possible. When I'm not working, I enjoy reading, sketching, and gardening.