Brief background/experiences
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where I was one of the initial organizers of Ladyfest.

I attended Parsons School of Design and graduated with a BFA in the Integrated Design Curriculum. My course concentrations were mainly in Communication Design (with a few electives in Architecture and Product Design).

While I was in school, I worked at index magazine, White Box Gallery, and The American Museum of Natural History. I had the honor of being one of Architecture for Humanity's earliest interns. I also interned at Common Ground and volunteered with The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.

When I got out of school I worked at Seneca Design.

Then I went independent and worked as a graphic designer and portrait/fashion photographer for two years until....

I decided to go to architecture school. I've been "behind the scenes" here at Archinect for a long time, and decided to completely deluge my hitherto tangential interest in architecture.

Between my 1st and 2nd years of architecture school, I worked with Kazys Varnelis of AUDC and Leah Meisterlin at the Network Architecture Lab in Columbia University's Studio-X.

Why you chose your school/program
I've been "behind the scenes" here at Archinect as a contributor for a long time, and finally decided it was the right time to completely deluge my hitherto-tangential interest in architecture.

I became interested in Architecture while at Parsons. Although my department was interdisciplinary, the core studios were taught mostly by people with architecture backgrounds, and I found out that I liked "architecture culture." When the good people of Archinect explained that one could receive a professional degree in architecture without having any previous experience, I knew that I wanted to remain interdisciplinary as an undergraduate, then eventually go to graduate school for an M.Arch.

I took some courses at Yale over one summer when I was still at Parsons, and liked the general environment. I wanted to study in an urban area, but not at the scale and pace of NYC - earning one degree in that chaos was plenty!

Yale was the best fit for me, because it has a broad-enough range of courses that someone with my non-architecture background could receive a relatively practical education, yet strong theory & experimental classes would also be available. I liked that Yale allows interdisciplinary cross-enrollment in all of the graduate and professional schools. It was important to me to continue working in photography and communication design, as I intend to incorporate my whole past into my future practice. I've also enjoyed taking classes in the School of Management, and plan to take electives in African-American Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality studies as well. Because I'm a flagrant interdisciplinarian, this is crucial.

But, really - my intution told me that this was the best place for me to be, and I've got a lot of faith in my intution.

Architecture interests
I'm still figuring that out. Mostly, I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing in design. Architecture school is like a big kindergarten in which we're allowed to play with very, very sharp knives. I have so much to learn that I can learn from just about anything, so that's what I'm doing. I'm interested in things like universal design & being ecologically responsible & socially responsible & making sweet buildings with conceptual integrity & obliterating binary gender classification in public bathrooms & using awesome shades of pale pink and lavender whenever possible... but that's not all. Instead of ending up as an architectural designer in the normative professional sense, I want to be able to accept any design job that comes my way, and well enough to be highly selective about the clientele. I've been able to operate that way in graphic design, photography, and illustration, and even in exhibition design, and now am learning how to do so in architecture. Someday, I plan to lead an interdisciplinary agency of creative professionals, whether as an entrepreneur or as part of a larger business or nonprofit.

Other interests
Social justice for queer & gender-variant individuals, and universal design/accessibility, are high on my list. But those are hardly "other" interests... architecture is just one way of addressing them. It's all useful here. Except, perhaps, sleeping, which is a huge interest of mine!

Truth be told, I love scandalous photos or links from the Internet.