PROJECTS / WORK IN CONTEXT
AI projects
I'm working on projects that focus on democratic legitimacy in AI governance, especially the need for long-range safety planning to involve a well-rounded view of societal conditions pre-AGI.
Community clearinghouse
In progress: I'm building an in-depth survey focused on asking communities the questions that they may have not been asked yet about how AI might affect their lives. This project aims to build a data-based backbone behind my thesis, which you can read a summary of below. This data will be analyzed, compiled, and uploaded into a clearinghouse for AI safety orgs, lawmakers, and labs to easily access.
The Missing Substrate
In progress: Substrate is the overaching body of work that defines and encompasses my thesis: AI safety and governance strategies both spend a lot of time focusing on the future and the "what-if," but people who will be affected by AI were already dealing with destabilization in many facets of their lives before AI came into the picture. Planning for the future without acknowledging this fact about the present risks a lack of legitimacy and potential blind spots in that planning. AI governance must build a foundation of pragmatic understanding of the reality of being a person on planet Earth in modern times, as many are struggling at baseline.
Powerful AI systems have the ability to help humanity solve many of these problems, but AI must be built, shaped and regulated in a way that acknowledges the truth that many don't want to say outright: we are deploying world-changing intelligence systems into a world that is already living through a collapse.
previous projects
ReSource Earth Services
I co-founded and served as Policy Director for ReSource, leading the startup into partnership with county government to work collaboratively towards compliance with California SB 1383. Beyond stakeholder management, the role involved wearing many hats (as early startups often do), and I was involved in all operational aspects of keeping the project pushing forward. I'm most proud of the way I fostered community engagement around policy issues and kept the startup on track for its regulatory obligations and legislative compliance goals.
Grassroots non-profits: watershed restoration
My roles encompassed frontline operations, donor relationships, fundraising, communications strategies, engagement campaigns and event coordination. The work was to restore watersheds in the Sierra Nevada while meeting the real water needs of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Mountain operations leadership
The start of my career involved supervising daily operations of high-volume sales offices at ski resorts, where I recruited, trained, and managed teams of over 25 employees while auditing financials and troubleshooting escalated issues. I also supervised a software-based customer support help desk, for which I became the go-to expert and solely redesigned the training program company-wide.
Independent policy-focused advocacy
Outside of my work for any organization, I have remained active in advocacy surrounding policy issues. My knowledge of environmental regulatory law was self-taught through involvement in public agency proceedings in the Yosemite area, such as when I attended and commented at public hearings surrounding a development project over the course of its entire permitting cycle. Six years later, the knowledge I built around California environmental law would lead me to identify an issue in another project's exemption from environmental review; I would go on to file a formal CEQA objection against a municipality, met by the city's legal counsel.
Despite a lack of formal credentials or institutional backing, I continue to grow my education on the law, and take action in any context in which I see a procedural breakdown in my community.