Applied linguist by training, energy strategist by trade. I'm Director of Education at Evolved Energy Research — where I translate modeling work for the people who need to read it, and try to keep the seminar table and the grid in the same conversation.
I trained at UCLA (PhD, Applied Linguistics) studying empathy in language: how grammar encodes perspective-taking and how speakers position themselves relative to what's being said. I lectured there for ten years, then moved to Brazil as a U.S. Department of State English Language Fellow and Visiting Professor at the University of São Paulo, where I taught linguistics, established an English-as-a-Medium-of-Instruction program, and practiced my pronunciation of paralelepípedo.
In 2024 I joined Evolved Energy Research as Director of Education. EER builds custom energy models for NGOs, governments, and utilities planning for the decarbonization transition. My job is to make that work legible to clients, journalists, and the public.
Turns out applied linguistics is good training for this. Both fields are about how meaning moves — or gets lost — across the gap between expert and audience. If you can teach a Brazilian engineer to lecture in English, you can teach a lobbyist what the difference between energy and power actually is (hint: total amount vs. usage speed).
In March 2025, the NYT quietly removed roughly a hundred climate and energy terms from official use. Federal agencies followed. A close look at what the vocabulary of a crisis looks like when institutions stop saying it.
Read the draft →Language doesn't just describe a crisis. It makes the crisis available for thought, conversation, and collective demand. What framing theory and critical discourse analysis reveal about the effects of the vocabulary that's gone.
Read the draft →The professional translates "non-traditional technologies" back to "clean energy" in their head. The member of the public just loses the phrase. On the asymmetry between experts and everyone else, and who pays for it.
Read the draft →Email is best — I'm friendly and reasonably prompt. Open to speaking, workshops, guest lectures, collaborations on writing at the language ↔ energy intersection, and the occasional crossword constructor swap.