Biography

I help people do awesome things with advanced networking technologies.

Ever since I was a kid with an Apple // and a 1200 baud modem I knew I wanted to do something with this crazy new thing called the Internet. This passion carried me through a computer science degree at the University of Michigan, and when I found Internet2 it felt like home - there is a whole community of educators, researchers, and technologists out here that are doing great things by working together over the best network platform in the world. Sixteen years later I still love coming into work every day to see what we're going to achieve together next.

While there are all kinds of fascinating technologies that use advanced networking, I have a particular soft spot for virtual and augmented reality. After spending years immersed in video conferencing, then telepresence, and now ubiquitous video chat, I'm extremely excited by the power of technology to connect people and enable deeper collaboration - and VR and AR is poised to take this to the next level. This is why I founded the Metaverse Working Group, have delivered many conference talks on VR/AR in education, and continue to evangelize VR/AR every chance I get.

Somewhere along the way I came to realize just how many people don't have access to broadband at home. It's unacceptable to me to see millions of Americans completely lacking the ability to participate in the most basic of online activities, let alone emerging technologies. This led me to become an advocate and volunteer in various community broadband efforts, including co-founding the Michigan Broadband Cooperative and Michigan Broadband Alliance, which are very active today in addressing the broadband gap in our state.