I am a life-long, mostly self-taught graphic designer and photographer with a passion for the natural world, human rights and social justice. For the past two decades, I have worked as an Art Director for Rainforest Action Network, a San Francisco-based environmental and human rights organization, where I have been fortunate to utilize my skills and creativity toward building a more just and sustainable world.

My educational background focused primarily on environmental policy and activism, but graphic design has been an integral part of my artistic life since before I was a teenager. Growing up in the subculture of the southern California skateboarding, surfing and music scenes is where I first became immersed in photography and zine-culture as a means of self-expression. Being surrounded by influential artists and musicians that were defying more stereotypical and commercial paths by creating their own unique styles and aesthetics throughout my early years led me to begin experimenting with my own magazine layouts and introducing me to more advanced layout concepts and typography.

These formative influences remained with me as I eventually moved to northern California for college to pursue my interest in environmental advocacy. Immediately upon arrival I immersed myself in the heated politics surrounding the logging of the last remaining old growth redwood forests and became more closely involved with organizations working on global justice and human rights. It was only after working as an organizer and educator for a few years after college that I returned to my artistic work more intently and began to synthesize how these complementary skills and passions could combine in order to amplify advocacy work and acheive greater impact.

Now, after more than two decades working in-house with RAN, I have seen this vision come to life through the many successful campaigns I have been fortunate to have been able to contribute to, as well as those in other organizations I have had the honor of collaborating with. The powerful role of visual storytelling has become a vital component in how organizations formulate and pursue their theory of change and as that work continus to grow, I am excited to remain in this space and committed to this work.