With nearly two decades inside some of the most high-performing engineering and operational environments in technology, my passion lies in making organizations click. I am the founder of vdot, an engineering and operations execution firm for hardware startups. Prior to that, I served as COO of Firefly Aerospace, worked in engineering leadership for Blue Origin’s Lunar Lander and Space Station programs, and was a senior engineer and technical program manager at SpaceX for the Starlink, Dragon, and Falcon 9 programs. I also moonlit as an Emmy-award winning co-host of the SpaceX launch webcasts.

Prior to joining the commercial space industry, I taught leadership courses at Harvard, worked on Mars robots and solar system public engagement at NASA/JPL, and developed novel spinal implant technologies at Medtronic. I spend my spare time advising space and climate tech startups; serving on the XPRIZE Space Exploration Brain Trust; and mentoring young aerospace companies and engineers with Creative Destruction Lab, the Patti Grace Smith and Brooke Owens Fellowships.

I earned my bachelor's degree from Princeton University in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering with certificates in Engineering Biology and Robotics & Intelligent Systems. My master's degree is in Business & Government Policy from the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, where I wrote my thesis in partnership with NASA on getting the general public engaged in Space Exploration.