I’m a teacher, UX designer and multi-disciplinary storyteller with a background in video, and theater.

Every experience comes with a story- and I can tell it through writing, video, flowchart, or aerial unicycle circus extravaganza (yes, really!).

Life has been a quirky and intriguing journey for me. I grew up following my family wherever the Navy sent us. I got to know a lot of parts of the U.S., and I learned to listen and adapt to the cultures around me. Along the way I picked up a passion for the performing arts and a hobby of collecting new skills. When I’m not learning something new or practicing something familiar, I spend time figuring out how lateral thinking can help me find useful solutions in unexpected places. It turns out that an eclectic skillset comes in handy for creating mental models of all kinds of problems.

An abbreviated list of my collected skills (reverse alphabetical order):

  • -Storytelling
    -Empathy for others’ experience
    -Creating procedures and routines
    -Testing, observation and iteration
    -Adapting to user needs
    -Breaking down information into useful chunks
    -End-to-end journey mapping

  • -Storytelling
    -Flexibility in the moment
    -Presenting information
    -Responding to audience feedback and iterating
    -Planning+improvisation (it’s a cycle!)

  • -Storytelling
    -Mapping multiple interwoven journeys
    -Collaborating with diverse teams to realize a shared vision
    -Identifying and nurturing team members’ strengths

  • -Storytelling
    -Storyboarding
    -Project management
    -Collaborating with diverse teams

It’s All Connected.

My resume is diverse and varied. Every part of my experience feeds the others. Each skill has a language of its own. As my skillsets grow, my story grows-and I open my perspective to see more patterns in the world.

See how it all comes together:

  • -Storytelling

    -Public speaking and communication

    -Cycles of planning and improvisation

    -Improvement through iteration

    -Engaging a sleepy crowd

  • -Storytelling

    -Empathetic leadership

    -Finding and building on each team members’ strengths

    -Building an environment of encouragement and support

  • -Storytelling

    -Trusting the process

    -Building skills bit by bit

    -Planning, Creating, and Polishing a product as a team

    -Helping the team understand the big picture in confusing moments

  • -Storytelling

    -Empathetic leadership

    -Seeing my role in the big picture

    -Communication

  • -Storytelling

    -Making mistakes on the way to crafting a perfect moment

    -Melding real-time creation and post-production time manipulation

  • -Storytelling

    -Collaborative idea development

    -Balancing creative experimentation with deadlines

    -Leading diverse teams to a shared vision

Visible Thinking Routines*

Video Editing*

Unicycling*

Tabletop Game Design*

Pumpkin Carving*

Playwriting*

Speaking French

Juggling*

Jaw Harp Playing

Improvisation*

Choral and classical singing

Blacksmithing*

Aerial Unicycling

Aerial Acrobatics

Adobe Creative Suite

*Skills I have taught to other people as part of a job.

Dan Burkey as Herr Drosselmeyer in Clara Takes Flight: An Aerial Nutcracker. Photo credit: Nicholas Hoffman