I’m a New Englander
I grew up 90 miles from Boston. I root for all Boston sport teams, but the Patriots hold a special place in my heart. I have countless memories from cooking buffalo wings over a firepit made out of an old washer drum at a tailgate, to sitting in traffic leaving Gillette stadium after a game and listening to the post-game interviews.
I enjoy spending time in the snow, whether I am shredding down a mountain on my snowboard or just to shovel out my car after a blizzard.
Even after moving to the West Coast, and being able to put my winter jackets in storage, I will always call the Northeast home.
I’m a patient
When I was 13, I was diagnosed with 3 chronic illnesses at the same time:
Primary Sclerosing Cholangitus (PSC), Ulcerative Colitis, and Type 1 Diabetes.
I had to quickly come to terms with the reality that I needed to overcome my fear of needles, learn to manage my Diabetes, and accept that I would eventually need a liver transplant due to my PSC.
During my quarterly appointments at Boston Children’s Hospital, seeing the other families in the clinic waiting rooms inspired me to pursue a career where I could create medical technology that improves the quality of life for people suffering with chronic conditions. That motivation was only strengthened the first time that I used an insulin pump and felt the impact it made to ease managing my diabetes.
The conditions I live with are part of who I am, and despite the complications they add to my life, they drive me forward me far more than they hold me back.
I’m a problem solver
I LOVE solving things; I’ve always been engrossed by the satisfaction of finishing a jigsaw puzzle, and I embrace a difficult engineering problem as an opportunity build on my skills and character as I overcome it.
The engineering process is a perfect mate for my personality:
My curious side enjoys defining the problems, breaking them into pieces, asking questions about them, and learning new processes and softwares.
My methodical side likes to record and analyze measurements and use math and simulation to aid the design process.
My creative side enjoys to design, and come up with out of the box solutions that may not be the final concept, but might inpire different avenues of thought around the problem.
And due to my headstrong nature, when I get stumped on a problem, it only motivates me more to learn new ways to solve it, and iterate design concepts until I reach a resolution.