Full Stack Software Engineer, AI R&D Specialist, and Community Organizer

In spring of 2025 an exciting opportunity arose to join Nava Labs, Nava's philanthropically funded research and innovation division. My team is tasked with evaluating how Generative AI can be applied to facilitate access to community and public resources. By rapidly prototyping applications that leverage emerging technology to expedite access to support, our team serves as early practitioners, establishing best practices for safely and meaningfully applying AI to the most pressing needs of case workers. This role has enabled me to share my learning and examples to help teach and encourage more developers to adopt AI tools into their delivery workflows.

My entry into the civic technology space was as a Software Engineer in the Information Technology Services branch of the State Court Administrator's Office of Colorado. Colorado is one of the few states that administrates its own Case Management applications. Supporting customized software and integrating new features based on direct interactions and feedback from justices and their clerks was my first exposure to the value of effective solutions for public services. One of my proudest contributions to date was implementing a new feature that notified justices when a case was related to any statute covered by the Victim's Rights Act. By giving justices advance notice, they could organize their docket and ensure a sheriff's officer was present and all other accommodations were prepared in order to protect vulnerable persons.

After nearly three years with the State Court Administrator's Office of Colorado, I joined Comcast Business's R&D team. It was the height of the pandemic and in the face of everyone adapting to collaborating remotely I was able to integrate with a tight-knit team and prototype several exciting innovations that were refined through close collaboration with executive stakeholders.

As my career progressed I felt a deep calling to return to developing applications with more public impact. I joined Nava PBC and spent my first two and a half years contributing to two separate initiatives in a comprehensive overhaul of New Jersey Division of Unemployment Insurance's administrative applications. I started by working on the Intake application that enables New Jersey residents to apply for unemployment insurance benefits. My team inherited a failing early-stage prototype and transformed it to become a remarkably successful improvement that reduced administrative burdens on claimants by streamlining the application process. Structuring the application process with helpful guidance, multi-language support, and strong validation connected New Jersey residents faster and more easily than ever before.

After delivering the Intake application, I joined a backend development team that created an event driven payments processing system that computes a claimant's benefit amounts. Working closely with their OIM office, we developed a modern database and payment calculation architecture to automate error-prone manual processes.