I started my career in law right after returning to the Bay Area after graduating from Princeton. I was passionate about social justice and over the span of four years, had the opportunity to work in various law settings providing legal services in the immigration and employment law sectors. I relished the opportunity to help immigrants who, like my own parents, were just trying their hardest to provide a good life for their families. I also loved getting to use my fluencies in Spanish and Portuguese in a professional setting, as the relief on a client's face when I could communicate in their native tongue always made me feel like I was having a meaningful impact on my community. 

After re-locating to Los Angeles in support of my partner's Ph.D program, I realized I wanted to use my experience to expand my reach and synthesize some of my greatest passions - social justice, research and systemic impact. While contracting, I began to develop the necessary project management, leadership and technical skills to transition into a career in tech. I also enrolled in and completed Google's Data Analytics Certification course, which provided me the opportunity to fine-tune my technical skills with R and Advanced Excel functions, as well as provided me with proficiencies in SQL and Tableau. At the same time, my family became temporary climate refugees during the 2020 LNU Lighting complex fire in Vacaville, which sparked my interest in the electric grid and the world of renewables, energy policy and policy research as a whole. 

After a long and careful process, I managed to land a position as a data and policy researcher at the Vera Institute of Justice, where I am currently working to help develop meaningful and person-centered research to help inform change in California. Working as a researcher at a social justice non-profit has been eye-opening, and a wonderful opportunity to use my background in California law, as well as my training in intersectional thinking, identity studies and equity frameworks to create nuanced, layered data and research materials. I have also gotten to pivot into having the systemic impact I have always wanted to have, which has been delightful! 

As someone with an environmental science background, I am very passionate about climate justice, environmental policy, natural resources management, urban agriculture and renewable energy, to name a few things. More than that, I believe that ecological literacy affords us the ability to apply systems-based thinking to both local and global problems which, when paired with data-driven decision making, can provide us with the tools we need to solve the big challenges ahead of us. Over the past few years, I have learned a ton about the renewable sector, and am very excited to learn more. I am really interested in figuring out how to thread all of my interests and passions to build a career where I can hopefully be a thought-leader in how we tackle the incoming challenges of climate change while keeping in mind folks on the margins. Folks like the many friends and neighbors who I grew up with who lost their homes, farms, pets, or personal belongings in the midst of a climate catastrophe in my hometown - the kind of which I fear will become more and more common as climate change progresses. 

Now, I'm seeking to use my ample experience and unique combination of education, life skills, cultural competency, communication skills and technical expertise to help execute investments in systems and programs that are making the world a better place and bringing the power back to the people. With the support of my community and colleagues, I want to build a strategy for centering marginalized communities in the renewable energy transition, with an eye towards making investments in resiliency the most lucrative market based strategy. So if you have any thoughts, experiences or books to share on any of the above, please reach out! 

In my spare time, I enjoy reading science fiction, going on hikes with my plant identification guides and working on stained glass windows. Additionally, I am passionate about sustainable living, and love working in my community garden and sewing clothing for myself and my friends using reclaimed or recycled materials. On top of all of that, I have a small cockapoo I am currently training to learn 30 tricks (we are at 24 so far!)