A former Ashoka's Changemakers's team member, I'm currently a graduate student working on an integrative field research project in Forest Management, in Nepal.
I spent a summer living at a long-term ecological research field station in Alaska called Toolik, at Toolik Lake. The stations is nestled in the tussock tundra of northern Alaska against the backdrop of the Brooks Range, one of the US state of Alaska's most beautiful mountain ranges. We used to stand outside around a campfire and watch the Midnight Sun as it approached but never really went below the horizon, around the time of the summer solstice. Northern Alaska holds a special place in my heart.
I went to Nepal for the first time in spring of 2009, and was struck during my time there by the lack of access to adequate or clean drinking water. I arrived there right around Bholi, a holiday in Nepali that involves a lot of fun water balloon fights, but from the follow day through the rest of my trip, Kathmandu was without water, and it really made a big impression on my thinking.
I became much more informed about sociopolitical issues limiting drinking water access while working for Changemakers in support of the 2008 competition around access to clean water and sanitation, and would say the question of how to resolve those issues is now a focal point in my interests as a social activist. I want to see the day when clean water is commonplace and universally accessible in Nepal and elsewhere, and would love to contribute to a group of people dedicated to making it happen sooner rather than later.
Before matriculating at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where I am presently enrolled as a Master's candidate, I worked on a contract basis with the Ashoka Changemakers team for their 2008 Geotourism, Water, and Human Trafficking Competitions.
While at Ashoka I freelanced with the HTC Group, a cultural heritage tourism and management consulting consultancy that is very near and dear to my heart for its president, a woman who is my mentor and who could be very reasonably be called my life coach for what she's taught me about the choices we make in life and the standards of performance, treatment of others, and professionalism we must set for ourselves.
Previous to Ashoka I worked with the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations in Washington, D.C., and before that as an environmental policy analyst with SRA International on projects emphasizing Brownfields and Superfund site redevelopment.
