Thinking Through Policy discusses public policies that affect living conditions in Washington State and abroad.

I work on public policy because I want to help people and nature thrive.  I am neither ideologue nor untethered to the past that has influenced me.  

Key places that have shaped my thinking include the forests and classrooms of Washington, where I learned about nature and conflicting incentives as well as what dual-language education requires and makes possible.  Albuquerque and US-Mexico border cities allowed me to blend theory with praxis in ways that underline the ever present power of inequality. The Korean cities of Busan and Seoul taught me about profound economic transformation, thriving cities, education fever, and urban forests.  In Mexico, the states of Hidalgo and Oaxaca keep questions of identity, incentives, and coordination in the front of my mind, while the Colombian cities of Medellín and Bogotá have allowed me to reassess what is possible when creative minds collaborate to solve complex problems.  In Ecuador, the city of Quito forced me to learn quickly about economics, while an internship at an orphanage in Ambato taught me too many lessons to summarize.  Santiago de Chile gave me the chance to live a dream at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, but also drove the power of history into my present.  Finally, studying online at O.P. Jindal Global University, in Haryana, India confronted me with deep issues that had previously existed only in the theoretical whispers of articles and anecdotes.  The underlying theme of these experiences has been that open, informed, and coordinated people improve the world.