Cultural Storyteller | Places, Artifacts, Communities
I tell human stories about place and culture in order to help communities execute their visions, and collaborate across disciplines to bring programs and projects to life.
I first learned the importance of place identity from my mother who, as an immigrant, kept her country of origin alive by assembling a full picture of Colombia as a place. My family’s oral history tradition gave me the tools to assemble an investigative worldview to explore through practice.
Work in museums, formal architectural study, and digital fabrication further fed my interest in the human implications of images and objects. Later as a member of a field archaeology team, I grounded people and their products in the landscapes that shape their lives and belief systems.
In my fourth year at the University of Virginia, I immersed myself in sustainable resource management and cultural landscapes in Morocco, and entered into a heritage project to restore Toumliline Monastery (Azrou) and collect grassroots narratives about religious minorities in remote areas.
My specialty is working across public-private lines with nonprofits, local community organizations, federal clients, and international institutions to sensitively realize their visions. I have worked across the entire life cycle of projects: feasibility studies, masonry condition surveys, stakeholder engagement, program design, grant applications, building design, evaluation & monitoring, and more.
I look forward to applying my holistic approach to new projects.
Design thinker, poet, bookworm, musician. Fascinated by physically layered material histories, aesthetics and ethics, and global stories.
IDM Collaborative Design LLC, Owner
• Enable creativity, community-building, and cultural literacy through fieldwork, research, and advocacy
• Clients include World Monuments Fund, University of Tetouan Faculty of Sciences, and the Fondation Memories pour l'Avenir (FMA)
• Contact me about copyediting, archival research, site surveys, technical writing, client correspondence and project coordination
Quinn Evans Architects, Baltimore, MD, US, Staff (Architectural) Designer
• Draw building components and create 3D models in Revit
• Evaluate existing conditions of 60 historic culverts along 100 miles of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal onsite and manage intern
• Conduct workshops to assess programmatic needs of board and staff for conversion of Faith Ringgold’s Studio and renovation of Natural History Society of Maryland
• Coordinate diverse stakeholders, including gov’t contractors, for restoration of US Naval Academy
• Maintain records, attend and record site proceedings, and review construction methods and materials against historic standards
High Atlas Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco, Global Sustainability Advocate + Cultural Heritage Specialist
• Coauthor successful $3 million cultural heritage grant proposal for interfaith sites
• Write articles publicizing interfaith tree planting initiatives and women’s empowerment programs
• Design paths, gates and pavilions for a proposed park at a semi-abandoned monastery as my thesis with a career diplomat
• Meet with former colleagues and future project partners around the Kingdom
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Digital Humanities Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant
• Center for Cultural Landscapes: Create metadata tags for images, maps and plans of global cultural landscapes and conduct archival research to find new pilot sites
• ARCH 1020 and 1030 Studios: Introduce first year students to architectural scale, aesthetics and ethics
• Fabrication Lab: Facilitate making and hands-on research, ensure safety, and pilot skill-building seminars
1 Design Lab, Tokyo, JP, Competition Design Lead (Month-long Externship)
• Direct a small studio team of illustrators based in Hangzhou, China for competition entry
• Design an architectural game that converts sound into water sprays and light projections on the side of a historic water tower by Nanhu Lake, China
• Shadowing firm leadership, I learned about organizational structure and research-oriented practice
The Kotroni Archaeological Survey Project at Kapandriti (KASP), Skála Oropoú, Evvoia, Greece, Field Surveyor + Specialist in Architecture
Lake Marathon, East Attica + Oropos Apothiki Museum, Skala Oropou (Greece)
• Field: Uncover evidence confirming ancient Afidna’s location on the shores of Lake Marathon, including terracotta, glassware, foundation + kiln stones and plant life
• Data Mapping: manually map specimen dataset from Survey123 form to corresponding spatial dataset in ARCGIS
Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, VA, US, Andrew W. Mellon Museum Fellowship
• Create research guides for paintings by minority artists underrepresented in museums
• Run museum education events: restorative art therapy with Alzheimer’s patients; artmaking with children; and maintain school outreach database
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, US, Bachelor of Science in Architecture
Graduated with Honors
Activities and societies: TA for First Year cohort, Creative Director of Scratch Zine, Fralin Student Docent, social cochair of the Washington Literary Society & Debating Union, collaborator on Lumina Pavilion.
Honors: Mellon Indigenous Arts Diversity Grant, Dean's Ambassadorship, Gold Memorial Scholar, Andrew W. Mellon Museum Fellowship.
Thesis: An Open Cloister
Top 30/465 Semifinalist - Jiaxing Nanhu Water Tower competition, Award
Sound of Water proposes retrofitting a historic water tower in Jiaxing, China with interactive cymatic elements, converting it into an urban instrument (Lead designer)
Joseph W. Gold Scholarship, Scholarship
2018, 2019 + 2020 recipient: Merit award, nominated for three consecutive years by a faculty/staff member and recommended by the Dean
Mellon Indigenous Arts Diversity Grant, Grant
Awarded to rising Arts professionals from minority backgrounds underrepresented in museums
Dean's Ambassadorship, Award
Serve on panels, field information sessions, host receptions, and give tours to prospective students, community groups, and key individuals
National Hispanic Scholar, Award
