Playfully and collaboratively inventing sustainability solutions through technology and social innovation.

Back story…

In some ways, it started out of necessity. I was raised by hippies and lived in poverty for most of my childhood. With an artist & entrepreneur for a mom and an eccentric healer & visionary for a dad, I learned how to be creative and resourceful. My parents couldn’t afford fancy toys for my younger brother and I, and so I made my own. Empowered to invent at a young age, I had the crazy belief I could make anything and shape my future as I wish. I still hold onto this belief today and it’s served me well.

As I learned more about how the world works and the tools that shape it, the objects I made evolved and became more complex. I became an artist and activist, and studied mechanical engineering, architecture, and philosophy. I travelled to India and practiced Vipassana meditation. I went to protests, I stood up for my values, and then I realized the hypocrisy we’re all guilty of – that many of us (including myself) do not live our lives with integrity. And so I changed. The objects I made changed too. They became teaching tools for living more sustainably.

I became more interested in community and the objects I made became more collaborative, involving larger teams of people. I learned I have an ability to inspire leadership and motivate people, and this translated into an upstream shift from making collaborative objects to making organizations who make collaborative objects. My experience working at environmental non-profits and for-profits, and my inventive spirit gave me the confidence to become a social entrepreneur. 

And now…

I’ve cofounded 8 ventures in a variety of areas including: green building, coworking, locative media, civic engagement, education, software, and research. Some of these include Vancouver’s premier social impact coworking space (HiVE), a B-Corp certified consulting company (Recollective) that facilitates the design and construction of some of the greenest buildings in Canada, and an award-winning design-thinking consultancy and incubator (Design Nerds).

I’m entering the next chapter of my career with a focus on accelerating innovation in mental health through building a technology platform (Quantified Citizen) for democratizing research, starting with psychedelic medicine. My commitment to advancing psychedelic science has resulted in me joining the Board of Directors of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Canada.

Learn more about my social ventures here.

Invention Evolution