About

Originally from St. Louis, I moved to Charleston in August of 2001 to attend the College of Charleston. A good friend of mine, many years post-graduation, described our experience as “not a terribly rigorous education, but it gave us space to spread our wings.” This rang true. While I worked at various restaurants to pay the bills, my favorite way to make extra money turned out to be playing in a band called Swiftwater Rescue. We got our start when the owner of Zuppa, a wonderful soup and sandwich shop on Warren Street, heard us practicing, knocked on our door, and asked if we’d like to play on his patio. First gig of many. We had a blast.

After college I spent a few years out West, in Bozeman, MT and Seattle, WA, before returning to Charleston in 2007 for a Master’s degree in Communications. The idea was to become a professor one day. Writing papers all day turned out to be a pretty reliable way to discover that wasn’t the right fit.

Post-graduation, I went to work for the Apple retail store downtown, which stopped me in my tracks. I remembered that building as Cumberlands, the bar where Swiftwater played our last gig before we all went on about our lives. What used to be a stage was now a Genius Bar, and those wonderful old brick walls were covered in cold stainless steel. I spent my first few weeks feeling quietly sad about that.

I stayed for twelve years. I worked my way into management, overseeing operations, sales, training, and a small team focused on serving business customers throughout the Charleston area. I made mistakes, fewer as time went on, and learned a great deal about leading people and developing talent. All the while, I found myself in another band called Green Levels. We cut our teeth at places like The Griffon and the Vendue Rooftop, found our niche, and to this day make a great living playing weddings, corporate events, and private parties throughout the region.

In 2023 I left Apple for Booz Allen Hamilton, where I worked as a Project Manager, Scrum Master, and Technical Requirements Analyst, serving as a liaison between the Department of Veterans Affairs and teams of software developers delivering upgrades to legacy platforms. Good work. Important work. But not the work I was born to do.

Around that same time, I went through a divorce, an amicable one, which became the catalyst for a project I’d always wanted to take on: converting my Park Circle home’s detached two-car garage into a studio apartment. Rental income seemed like a smart solution to an expensive season of life. I called my old friend, the former owner of Zuppa, by then a highly skilled carpenter and project manager, and during the height of COVID, when 2x4s were going for almost eight bucks a stick, we got to work.

I had always been handy, no stranger to a construction site. But working on my own home from conception to completion, that’s when I truly fell in love with building. And once that renovation wrapped, I haven’t stopped. Many of those projects are on this site. I hope you like them.

As for why I’m here telling you all of this: it turns out AI really is coming for our jobs, and when your company works for the federal government, which has undergone a massive transformation lately, it’s a double whammy. In late April of 2026, a meeting appeared on my calendar. Myself and several hundred colleagues were told our time at the company was coming to an end.

I wasn’t surprised. Honestly, I was a little relieved. Were they really giving me permission to step away from government software and back into the physical world? I’ll take the nudge.

I learned a great deal at Apple and Booz Allen. I wouldn’t change either experience. I’ve also built something real with Green Levels, a small business that’s been running for years on craft, relationships, and showing up. Now I get to bring all of that to something I love.

I’m invigorated for the first time in a while. I can’t wait to build something new, and if you’ll have me, I hope we can build something together.