About Me

I'm a Director at Guidehouse. I spend most of my time on why organizations struggle to adopt new technology—even when the technology works and everyone agrees change is needed.

My focus is on the organizational side of transformation: the structures, skills, and cultures that determine whether new capabilities actually get used or just sit there.

How I Got Here

I came to this question sideways. I trained as a classical cellist at the University of Cincinnati, planning a performance career. Then I saw a documentary about human rights abuses that reoriented everything. I ended up studying cross-cultural communication and joining the State Department.

Over fifteen years at State, I worked my way up to Chief Operating Officer for Public Diplomacy—managing a $1.5 billion budget, 5,000 people, and operations across 170+ embassies and consulates. The job put me in the middle of the question I keep returning to: why good ideas stall out in large organizations, and what it takes to move them forward.

Some of what worked: founding a Research and Evaluation Unit to actually measure whether our programs made a difference. Leading a Public Diplomacy Modernization effort to update systems that hadn't kept pace with how the world communicates. Building teams that could try new approaches in risk-averse environments. I won the Sean Smith Award for Innovation along the way—Sean was someone who understood that the work matters, and that recognition meant a lot.

Now at Guidehouse, I see the same pattern across government and enterprise: the technology usually works fine. The challenge is designing organizations that can use it.

What I Write About

I write here about the gap between how technology evolves and how organizations change. Also: lessons from Japan, where I lived and first understood how deeply culture shapes organizations. Sometimes about music—I still play cello, including occasional performances at the Kennedy Center.

Affiliations

Council on Foreign Relations term member. World Economic Forum Global Shapers founding curator.

Connect

The best way to reach me is through LinkedIn or the contact page.