Biography

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I attended Stanford University as an undergraduate where I earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in Public Policy.  I went on to work for a few years as a research assistant at the Brookings Institution and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where I focused on a variety of issues affecting budget and tax policy while working primarily with Bill Gale and Bob Greenstein.  I moved back to my home state of Minnesota, where I worked as a low income tax lobbyist for two years at a local non-profit, and then after a year off, I applied and got accepted into graduate school. 

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I then spent four years working on a PhD in economics at the University of California – Berkeley, where my studies emphasized topics in public finance and behavioral economics.  I served as a teaching assistant in a variety of undergraduate classes, and worked as a research assistant for Raj Chetty.  I ended up satisfying all the requirements of the program except for the dissertation, however, before graduating, I had to drop out to deal with some ongoing health problems.  The health issues are chronic, but are being managed successfully, and might even be in remission. After a decade away from graduate school, I am currently trying to write up and share the ideas I developed during that time away in the hope that I might be able to return to complete my PhD and perhaps even revive my academic career.