I believe in social change that blends heart with rigor.
I started thinking a lot about friendship after years of moving. I was raised in the Appalachian mountains in rural Kentucky, moved down Alabama, over to Tennessee, up to Boston (with a short sojourn in Rome), across to London, back to Washington DC, across to Austin, and most recently down (under) to Adelaide, Australia. I've had a variety of experiences of community and friendship in these different places, some close and abundant, others less so.
Professionally, I started in engineering and internet startups before leaving to work in social change for Ashoka and The Australian Centre for Social Innovation. Most of my work has been around the pointy-end of things, with projects combatting homelessness, carer stress, domestic violence, and child abuse.
More and more, though, we’re learning that the health of your close relationships, your strong connections, has a huge impact on issues like these and others like depression, addiction, and even heart disease.
I’ve started Kitestring to search for new ways to work not at the pointy end but further up the track. Ways to build resilience in people and communities by strengthening close groups of friends.
We don’t yet know where it will go, but I imagine it can only be good places. Thanks for looking us up, and I hope you’ll stick around for the journey.