Building Product-Society Fit
Over the past couple of years, I led product for Twitter's internal rules enforcement software—then known as Health Tools—until the acquisition. I drove a long-term investment to unblock all of Twitter's new product launches (e.g., Spaces, SuperFollows) while keeping compliant with a fast-moving regulatory landscape (e.g., TERREG, EUCD, DSA, POFMA) and addressing key platform concerns (e.g., child safety, misinformation). I'm most proud of growing a committed team of about 15 product folks and about 100 software engineers, focused on building for scalability and responsible automation.
For the prior decade, I built and ran LaborVoices, an award-winning crowdsourcing platform for workers in global factories to have a say in supply chain management. We got a lot done, working with companies like Apple, Walmart and Adidas, as well as building a content community of over 100,000 workers across a dozen countries. Here's a quick look at our last product, Symphony, with more of that story here and here.
For three years before that, I had the honor of serving at the highest levels of the US government. At the State Department's Human Rights Bureau, I ran global internet freedom—supporting the Tor Project—and labor rights and corporate social responsibility across 22 countries. I reported on labor rights enforcement, worked on international trade and labor policy, advised multinationals on their international operations, and funded international labor advocates. State had me helping out with Obama White House privacy efforts, as well.
At the Department of Energy's Office of Science, I co-authored an interagency roadmap for the Science of Science Policy, as well the National Aeronautics R&D Plan, both for the Bush White House. DOE also had me dipping into research programs supporting energy efficiency and renewable energy. While in Washington, DC, I also taught a course on the Science and Policy of Sustainability for American University.
Previously, I was an expat anti-corruption volunteer paralegal in the slum areas of Delhi. That's where I became a transparency nut. Before that, I pursued my first love, physics, from my start in rural Mississippi to Caltech and then to UCSB (PhD). I've always been a science geek.
I really like sharing what I've learned around products, policy and science. I'm a frequent speaker, inspiring coverage by BBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Inc., among others. I also wrote an academic book chapter on how to use mobile technology to prevent supply chain tragedies.
I enjoy mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs, and advise several for-profit and non-profit startups, especially via 500 Startups, Echoing Green and Ashoka. I'm a big reader, and a lapsed Judoka.
