I’ve been a writer longer than I’ve been able to read. In early childhood I had a habit of scribbling frenetically on paper while narrating stories aloud. This, however, did not translate into a writing career later in life. While I have continued to write in any spare moment I can find, the idea of selling my work for public scrutiny has always terrified me. I chased a career in just about anything else I could reach that wouldn’t subject me to the discomfort of creative vulnerability. As a result, I got my undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Political Science, I have studied numerous languages, I received a Master’s in Public Health, I have over a decade of biomedical research experience, and even did a six-month internship in sexual and reproductive health programming.
While it would be easy for me to look back on this array of experience as a waste of time, it would also be misguided. No matter where my whims took me, it all kept pointing me back in the same direction: I love to write. This wasn’t a surprise, obviously. What was a surprise was discovering an abiding passion for editing. Whether I was writing a grant proposal, a research report, policy analysis, my graduate thesis, or even public health awareness tweets, the part that held my interest without fail was the editing process. Yet I would have continued on the career path of least resistance had years of health-induced unemployment not forced me to confront my true ambitions. I have concluded that the most fulfilling career I can imagine for myself involves editing the works of others. I want to ensure that a lack of technical finesse doesn’t prevent someone from sharing their words with the world. In October 2026 I completed the editing certificate program at the University of Chicago Graham School, an experience that only confirmed that I was on the “right” path.
Outside of writing and editing, I have (unsurprisingly) a wide variety of hobbies, including reading, photography, knitting, crocheting, staring at pictures of historic architecture, and playing video games (anything from hundred-plus-hour RPGs to fifteen-minute quickplay matches in Call of Duty). The rest of my time is spent cuddling my eight-year-old French Bulldog, Avalon.
