About

The short version

I spent seven years as a backend software engineer, six years in education and career outcomes, and the last year and a half in product. The through-line is narrower than the titles suggest: I have always been responsible for a number, and I have always been close enough to the build to change it.

The longer version

I started as an engineer — API and platform work, ending at Refinery29 on systems serving 110 million page views a week. Somewhere in that stretch the interesting question stopped being how do I build this and became is this the right thing to build. I joined Reforge's Growth Series in 2016 to take that seriously.

Then I spent two years running a small direct-to-consumer brand on my own, sourcing through storefront to sales. It did not become a business. What it taught me was to confirm the pull before building the push — which is the habit I brought to everything after it.

At Outco I taught software engineers data structures and system design, 500+ hours of it, and then built and ran the coaching organization behind it: 20+ coaches to 40+, 1,000+ learners, a contribution to more than 300 job placements. Job placement rate was the number I answered for. Then I became product manager on ApplyPass, the venture Outco was building in parallel, and ran roadmap and delivery for a team of five.

Now I build AI products. Cleara is a 0→1 AI learning product I designed and built solo — architecture, AI interaction design, UX, the feedback loop. It has no users and it is not a business. It is a working prototype and a clear point of view about where AI belongs in a learning product, which I will demo to anyone who asks.

What I am looking for

Product ownership with a metric attached, on a team with engineers I can talk to directly. In New York.

Outside the work

Three years leading the San Francisco network of Women Who Code, as Lead and then Director. Founding member of Dreamers & Doers. I translated six TED talks from English to Chinese.