Experience
I spent the first 25 years of my career operating spacecraft for NASA, almost 20 of those years in leadership roles. After a family-driven move from the US to the UK, I transitioned into freelance work, leveraging the skills built over a career of managing technical teams and projects to offer professional coaching and collaborative development of data driven storytelling and visualization tools.
Before relocating, I served as the Flight Operations Manager for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. In this role I led a multidisciplinary team responsible for around-the-clock operations, response to adverse events, trending and analysis, mission planning, and software development. I became adept at presenting complex technical information to a wide range of audiences, breaking large problems and projects into manageable parts, and strategically using limited resources to address long lists of high priority tasks.
I have a highly logical and ordered way of thinking, and of approaching problems. This ability pulled me towards engineering in my formal education and served me well in my career. However, my hobbies and interests have always reflected a pull towards the visual arts. Throughout my education, including while earning my degree in Physics and Mathematics, I filled my elective coursework with visual arts. My pursuit of arts education did not stop with graduation. Through personal projects, I continued to learn color theory, composition, scale, and how we process visual information. As the field of data visualization grew, and visual storytelling became an increasingly important part of the way we communicate technical information, I was able to bring the skills I had quietly been growing in my personal life into my professional life. Over time, I used my life-long affinity for design to develop a signature style for my presentations, and to develop my ability to convey complex technical data graphically.
I now use this unique combination of experience to help clients meet their challenges.
Services
I lean on years of experience presenting technical topics to broad audiences to coach technical professionals on presenting complex information in engaging and approachable ways. We work together to improve presentation skill and to develop storylines and visuals that are easy to process and remember.
My management style is one that balances intuition with data analysis, organizational tools, and careful risk assessments. I work with small business owners and team leads to establish structures and systems to help them prioritize competing tasks, break large projects into manageable pieces, and optimize use of limited resources.
While I spent much of my career analyzing and presenting data, I have a life-long interest in the visual arts. I combine these seemingly disparate skill sets to help clients develop visual tools for efficient monitoring and communication of data sets and processes. These tools can take the form of intuitive plots and data visualizations, dashboards, or traditional documents and slide decks with data driven content.
I have stepped back from full time work in spacecraft operations, but continue to provide advisory-level subject matter expertise, independent reviews, and surge support to for space mission operations.
Location and Right to Work
As a US citizen with legal residence and right to work in the UK, I can support clients in both the US and the UK.
I am currently located in Cambridge, England and can travel within a reasonable radius to meet in person. I also have extensive experience working collaboratively and presenting in a remote environment. For US clients, I visit the Boston area periodically and maintain an address there.
Contact
Please use the contact form to reach out if I can help you with your communications or project management needs. See the links above or from the home page for more details on the services I offer.