Currently focused on the following:
- Design and professional development for education programs focused on environmental monitoring — schools and out of school
- Researching forest therapy methods
- Learning about the science of happiness
- Design and distribute environmental monitoring kits
- Collaborations with organizations that focus on STEAM or Environmental monitoring
My background is in building and managing software and hardware projects. I’ve started a few tech and education startups, a nonprofit, I’ve worked at universities, for large and small software companies and foundations.
I like to solve problems that I’m really passionate about. Take for instance the Represent.LA map. When I moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2008 I was told that there wasn’t a startup scene and there weren’t any women in tech. I went on a mission to prove these naysayers wrong. I did some research, I delivered a talk and buddied up with a couple of people to create a free, online map of all the startups in LA. Now that map is used by not only startups in Los Angeles, but cities all over the world that want to showcase their startup ecosystems.
When I started looking into schools for my son, I quickly realized that schools were not providing hands-on STEM education leaving kids without relevant skills for future jobs. With the help of passionate parents and community members, we started the nonprofit community group, LA Makerspace (LAM). LAM is the primary STEM service provider to LA Public Library which has over 70 branches. In addition, LAM is helping to start makerspaces at schools including Compton as well as run a coding crew that teaches kids how to code around LA.
Now I’m focusing on my lifelong passion – environmental conservation. I’m pairing this passion with my technology background to design and distribute conservation technology solutions. My company, KitHub, is partnered with organizations including Safecast, to provide environmental monitoring devices and education to citizens, researchers, environmental protections agencies, and anyone interested in measuring and analyzing radiation levels and air quality. In addition, I am working on a project for wildlife conservation that I’ll be starting to talk about in the days ahead.