Academic Bio

I am a critical designer and researcher examining how state capacity breaks down as automated systems become the default interface for public life. I teach in the Urban Technology program at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

My practice grows out of almost twenty years of work across local, state, and federal government. I spent nearly eight years at 18F inside the US General Services Administration, a special operations digital team focused on improving how government builds and buys technology. At 18F I led the design practice, supported delivery teams, and advised senior leaders on modernization strategy, vendor relationships, procurement pathways, and long-term service delivery.

My work examines the widening gap created when daily life is mediated through opaque algorithms and extractive platforms. Public institutions and the civic systems built over the last century are outpaced by systems that operate faster and demand more from the people who rely on them. I study how communities absorb this shift and how these systems are reorganizing civic life.

My research focuses on the experience of navigating automated intermediaries for services people are entitled to. I argue that disintermediation alters the citizen-state relationship in ways that weaken accountability and make essential services harder to access.