I'm a Pacific Northwest native: Born near the mouth of the Columbia River, raised in the hinterland of southwest Washington, and fully accustomed to year-round drizzle.

I attended Portland State University, where I studied in the University Honors College. After graduating from PSU in 2011 with a B.A. in Sociology (and a minor in English), I moved to Seattle to join the University of Washington's M.A./Ph.D. program in Communication. In 2013, I completed the M.A. portion of that program, and successfully defended a thesis on the relationship between contemporary rhetorical theory and the work of philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek. My dissertation explores digital currencies, particularly Bitcoin, from a rhetorical perspective.

Throughout my time in graduate school I've also taught a variety of classes: Introductions to the field of communication, an information literacy course, and theoretical approaches to new media. The latter is especially dear to my heart, because it allows me to help students contextualize and think critically about important contemporary issues related to new media technologies: privacy and surveillance, copyright and intellectual property, etc.