On this page: About me, resume, writing, speaking, freelance, contact
I’m a senior editor at The Atlantic and on the board of directors for The Society for News Design.
* All of my best work is the combined effort of great teams.
The Times brought me on as a contractor to reimagine what an R&D team could look like within a modern newsroom. We explored how emerging technologies can be applied in service of journalism working with companies such as Google, IBM, and Meta to build real-world tools for journalists.
On my second tour, The Times asked me to build a new content mangement system for the magazine, but I ended up staying on for another year to create a college mentorship program before pivoting during the early pandemic to apply machine learning to aid reporters.
I co-founded Vox.com, drawing the original sketches on a napkin and hand coded the initial site daily. I worked closely with journalists and editors to design and build better storytelling tools including open source applications used by thousands of organizations.
“The difference is that Vox is open to experimentation, it demands rapid iteration, and it puts technology-shaping people on par with word-shaping people. The difference is that, in many traditional newsrooms, changing the UI on a page … would have taken multiple meetings where the tech side’s knowledge would likely have been undervalued. It’s a corporate ethos and a permission structure that means good ideas don’t have to get bottled up. It’s being the kind of place that would build Chorus in the first place. That is Vox’s edge, and you can’t buy that off the shelf.” — Nieman Lab
At the Post, as User Experience director I led the charge to merge product teams into the newsroom where we rebuilt all platforms with a focus on innovation, including the commercially successful CMS Arc, an app for fact checking live video in real time, and Know More, which became the top vertical in three weeks.
I was the lead designer on a multi-year project to create a unified design system for more than 200 local newspaper, broadcast, and radio stations.
I’m always open to speaking opportunities. I give talks on emerging technologies, the intersection of product and media, design thinking, organizational design, and workplace culture. Previously, I’ve presented at TedX Poynter, WordCamp USA, Society for News Design, and Online News Association.
Interested in working together? Send me a note — especially if it involves news or food. I’ve worked with organizations including The New York Times, Stanford d.school, and Dagens Nyheter, on design and development, editorial strategy, and emerging technologies.