About

I came to Kenya on a Fulbright in 2010, expecting to stay a year. I ended up helping build the research department at iHub when it was still the only tech co-working space on the continent worth being at, and I have been based in Nairobi ever since.

I have a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from UC Irvine, completed in 2021. Most of the fieldwork was in Nairobi. Two children arrived during those seven years, there was a pandemic, and I am not going to pretend that was a normal way to do doctoral research. But the question I was studying matters to me and has shaped most of my work since: why does research produced in Africa tend to serve the knowledge needs of institutions elsewhere, and what would actually have to change for that to stop?

I have raised over $5.7 million in funding since then, built and led research teams across East Africa and globally, and grown CSIDNet from nothing into a community of practice connecting researchers working on climate, health, and community-led knowledge production. I take on consulting work for a small number of organizations each year, mostly those trying to build governance structures that do not reproduce the hierarchies they were designed to challenge, or working out how to do serious work in East Africa without being extractive.

My networks in the region are deep. My tolerance for diplomatic vagueness is low.

If that sounds like work you are doing, I would like to talk.