About Me

Should I specialize in something?

What if my knowledge becomes too narrow?

Should I be a generalist?

What if my knowledge isn’t specialized enough?

Hi! It’s me! Your good friend, Ally.

JUST DO BOTH!

With over 6 years of experience, I am a community-oriented design researcher discontented with an unsustainable world. I have nurtured a dream-lit approach for tackling diverse, complex social issues with his backgrounds in art, planning, and inexorable curiosity.

I’m passionate about the intersection of hands-on sociological research and design thinking. Maybe with a touch of graphic design? And a few jokes tossed in, too, of course.

I’m a graduate of Urban Planning and Sustainable Design with minors in Sociology, Informatics, and Art & Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

I pursued both degrees in a search for “T-shaped” knowledge, being able to know both wide and deep. As my life is an ever-exciting quest to learn just about everything, I try my hardest to be interesting and interested.

I am inspired to design around how people engage with their city, their community, and their world. I find the things in life that are overlooked and make them better for everyone. Whether this is through my presidency of a design thinking organization, my research with the National Science Foundation, or my work in the community, my guiding question is: “How can I make the world a better place?“