Although I'm a big fan of doing not too much in general, my current hobby is making belts. Happy vegan belts. Well, belt buckles, at least. You can buy them there at my Etsy shop! Isn't that great?

I also work at Portland State University. At the Survey Research Lab and Regional Research Institute, doing applied social research. I'm particularly fond of qualitative data analysis and participatory research methods. I have a Masters of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development, so that works out well. If I could do absolutely anything for work right now, I would do organizational development and capacity building for grassroots and community-based organizations, using participatory research models. Things like program evaluation and impact assessments.

You can find my resume here.

Other fun and interesting things I've done include:

• An Ignite Portland presentation called How to be a Refugee: Several not so easy steps from oppression to resettlement.
• Taught English in Shiogama, Japan for a year after finishing my Bachelor's degree at University of Montana
• Lived in Australia while attending grad school at The Australian National University in Canberra. Which is kind of a small city.
• Lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a little over a year. I also taught English for bit there, ate lots of kao soi, and worked with Burmese refugee community organizations. I also worked with Burmese refugee organizations in Malaysia.
• I blogged at therobots.org while I was in Australia and Thailand.
• I also used to write the blog Burma Underground.
• I co-founded and coordinated the Books for Burma program, and sent over 300 books to Burmese refugee and activist organizations in Southeast and South Asia in 2007.

You can also find me on Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook

Articles I've Written

What next for the Saffron revolution?
Published in Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review; Issue 7, October 2007

Caught between countries: The Shan in Thailand
Published in INTHEFRAY Magazine, July 2005