About me

Work things

I’m a self-taught front-end developer from San Francisco and have been pushing pixels since 2006—the era of IE6, floats, and clearfixes.

The “front-end” has annexed much of the development ecosystem. I’ve wandered much of it, but I keep coming back to my core interest: building thoughtful, playful web experiences without gimmicks.

Am I a “design engineer,” a “design systems engineer,” a “UI engineer,” or just a “front-end developer?” Yes. Whatever we call it, my sweet spot is in the front of the front-end.

I love partnering with designers and engineers to think through UX and UI architecture. I can’t help but think in design systems and will build one into even the silliest of projects (like this one).

My design sensibility favors simplicity, performance, and accessibility over bells and whistles (read: parallax, scroll jacking, gratuitous animations). My coding sensibility is no different, favoring clarity over cleverness.

All evidence to the contrary, I love writing and I approach coding as an exercise in prose. I ended up owning the documentation site for Gusto’s Design Systems team, which turned into a surprising amount of technical writing and project management. I also wrote the Design Systems newsletter where we updated the company on our progress.

Personal things

I grew up in a small farming community in Northern California and relocated to San Francisco when I quickly discovered—as a child—that farm life was not for me. I’m the first person in my family to graduate college.

I’ve lived here for more than 20 years and have now seen three boom-bust cycles.

I work on the web, but I’m not much of an “online” person. I don’t maintain a presence on or follow social media. I prefer to spend my spare time living life off the screen.

I’m passionate about travel and observing other ways of life. I have been fortunate to visit more than 25 countries, to study abroad in Paris, and to spend a couple of years living in Melbourne, Australia. My experiences abroad have informed the way I live my life and taught me that America is not the center of the universe.

You’ll typically find me at CrossFit, running, cycling, hiking, or scuba diving. You probably won’t find me on the couch if the sun is shining. I’ve ridden cycling tours in France, Spain, South Africa, and Thailand and have biked from San Francisco to Los Angeles twice.

I’m a major aviation geek and am an instrument-rated private pilot and—oddly—a certificated ground instructor. I’m a regular plane spotter at SFO.

In direct contrast to the previous statement, I love the planet and do everything I can to live with a minimal footprint.