Hi, I'm Alison.

I'm a student at Columbia University in New York City. ☀️

Former software developer, aspiring ecologist

I'm currently a student at Columbia University completing the Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology post-baccalaureate prorgram. I'm hoping to go into a Masters or PhD program focusing on an area of environmental science after finishing the program at Columbia.

Background

After I graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Cognitive Science in 2017, I completed two software engineering bootcamps before being hired by Bento for Business, a FinTech startup, in 2018. After the company was acquired by U.S. Bank, I worked for the bank for 3 years where I was promoted to Software Engineering Manager and helped grow our engineering organization 5x the size it was when we were a startup.

I lived in Washington, DC and Alexandria, VA for a few years where I joined the Weed Warriors program from the National Parks Service. We met bi-monthly to remove invasive plant species from the local National Parks.

I also lived in Oakland, CA for a while, and while there I volunteered for OpenOakland (a Code for America brigade). I was on the steering committee for the year of 2019 where I lead the effort to modernize and open-source the organization's website in addition to running the org's internal and external communications. Before and after being part of the leadership team, I helped lead the Open Disclosure project, a website for local campaign finance visualization, in addition to being a code contributor for the site throughout my time there.

Et cetera

When I'm not reading a sci-fi book, I like to learn about humans, psychology, design, and science. I also love traveling and spending time outdoors, including hiking, biking, camping, and rock climbing. I have a goal to visit every National Park in the US some day.