I’m wildly curious, and I have a passion for learning new things.
I’ve always had a drive to understand how things work, which has lent itself well to my career in software engineering. I fell into Computer Science by accident after I transferred from Baylor University to the University of Denver. The transition from the semester system to the quarter system meant that I was further behind in the Engineering programs at DU, so I picked Computer Science as a major because it seemed the most adjacent. I had never coded anything in my life, or even considered Computer Science as a potential major or career path. As a kinetic learner, I immediately feel in love with solving problems through software engineering. It’s black and white, yet it’s artistic and open ended. Over time I’ve gone through different phases with it where I’m more interested in a particular area, but I have never fallen out of love with it, and I’m eager to see all the ways I evolve through this career path.
I got my first software engineering internship at Foresyth Technologies in 2014, working on a SaaS project called “KillerIT”. From there I started my professional career as a junior Software Engineer at the Nasdaq stock exchange. After a few years I left briefly to dabble in the startup world at Craftsy, right after they were bought by NBCUniversal. Unfortunately I was laid off at Craftsy and the company went under, so I returned to Nasdaq to work on the TradeGuard Risk Management platform.
In 2021, I got the opportunity to join the Engineering team at eSpark Learning, where I am currently a Technical Lead on the Data and Infrastructure team. It was a major transition from a large Fortune 500 company to a small, scrappy startup of less than 40 people, but it was been invaluable experience. I find so much gratification in doing work that benefits the community, and fosters my own personal and professional growth.
Outside of work, you will find me pursuing an overabundance of hobbies and interests. I enjoy picking up new programming languages and technical skills through online courses, certifications, and tinkering with this website (which I put together with Jekyll and Github pages). Aside from tech projects, I’m passionate about tennis, fitness things, and music. I love playing the guitar, collecting vinyl records, going to concerts, and listening to music. I also really enjoy reading non-fiction, running, doing yoga, cooking, and hanging out with my Golden Retriever, Sulley.