I have this personal saying: we all share the same moon, a belief that we’re all in this together, and I lead with kindness, towards connection and action.

I’ve done on-the-ground humanitarian work in Nepal.

I spent several weeks doing volunteer humanitarian work in Nepal, which took place six months after an earthquake in 2015. I traveled with a New York-based non-governmental group that had years-long connections with communities in Kathmandu and Phulping.

We conducted workshops with children, adults and displaced families to help curb potential PTSD symptoms at a refugee camp, a boarding school, and an orphanage in Kathmandu, as well as a remote village in the mountains of Phulping. We delivered donations collected from the US and met with village leaders on how to rebuild after the earthquake.

The life-changing experience in international volunteer work boosted my leadership skills, which I wrote about for Associations Now.

As a journalist covering global humanitarian crises, my time with a non-governmental organization in different environments and settings across Nepal taught me how impactful humanitarian work can be for communities around the world.

Know of an opportunity in humanitarian work? Let’s get connected.

In 2020, I built the AccessibleMasks.org resource and transparent mask directory with my brother in an effort to make the masked pandemic accessible.

As two deaf people who wear cochlear implants ourselves, we understood the difficulty in the communication barrier of solidly covered masks during the new public health crisis. This presented a challenge for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, elderly people, and those speaking other languages and we wanted to present an easy solution.

We combined our skills to develop and design a website—with extensive educational resources—from scratch. We coordinated with accessible mask vendors on including them in our resource, with some later expanding into partnerships.

With the simple website URL and our social accounts, we were able to effectively educate and promote inclusion to thousands of people via digital word-of-mouth during a public health emergency.

The website was also featured in several articles, as well as podcast and video interviews, through 2020 and 2021, furthering our outreach to both disabled and non-disabled communities around the world.

I’m solutions-oriented.

As an individual born profoundly deaf and currently using a cochlear implant, I’ve spoken about accessibility issues deaf people face—sharing solutions along the way.

With an personal passion for communication access and inclusion, I’ve publicly discussed gaps in accessibility that I or deaf and hard of hearing community members experience. I emphasize detailing solutions that people and organizations can take in physical spaces, health facilities, film festivals, concert tours, and US elections.

I’ve also presented and taught solutions for accessibility advancements in news media and digital content at each of my workplaces.

Want to collaborate on improving accessibility? Let’s talk.