I am interested in the human capacity to navigate the unknown.

I have a PhD and MSc. from the University of Oxford (UK) where I conducted anthropological research with households facing major life transitions in the Northeastern United States. I later conducted a study on uncertainty and wellbeing with over 80 households in the early days of the covid-19 pandemic (see: Research + Teaching). After a series of disruptive events in my own life, I realized my research could inspire and help people outside the academic walls. I combed through countless ethnographic findings—which means insights driven by real people in real places, all over the world—as well as my own data from over a hundred households, and developed a simple system for navigating the unknown which I call “The Uncertainty Approach.” I’m currently working on an ethnographic memoir about my research and offer uncertainty management workshops for organizations. I am also a fiction writer who writes about grief, relationships, sexuality, and, of course, uncertainty.

I have a BA in Gender Studies (University of Connecticut), with a focus on the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class. From 2018-2020 I was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in writing for the social sciences at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where I taught courses on uncertainty, environmental change, social justice, and writing. I have also worked as a medical-legal researcher in industrial health and helped launch the Journal of Scientific Practice and Integrity (JoSPI.org). I remain a research affiliate at the Oxford Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (oxfordobesity.org) at the University of Oxford. I currently work for Elsevier as the managing editor of Caring for the Ages, the official news publication of AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. I also freelance as an editor and writing coach. 

I’m a born-and-raised New Englander with a love for the forest, mountains, and the sea. You can find me at a hot yoga class, hiking the hills (always with a thermos of tea), dreaming by the sea, writing and painting at home, or enjoying food in the company friends.

Portraits by Daniella Dawson.