I work on ambitious ideas to help cities keep pace with the 21st century.

I founded and run the Pilot Pitchfest, a scrappy non-profit initiative that works with over 20 New York City agencies to match them with the free, expert resources available in New York’s academic and civic tech community. I also founded AKA Urban, an advisory firm which crafts and launches public-private-partnerships to help cities modernize their built environment. In the past two years, AKA has helped structure over $1BN in spending. Projects include working on the Governor's 2025 State of the State, and managing a $500M overhaul of how the U.S. Navy designs and delivers preschools and housing for military families.

Previously, I was a Fellow at the Jacobs Urban Tech Hub at Cornell Tech. At Cornell, I wrote Pilot: New York City, a 3-year plan to help the City of New York improve its tech and innovation capabilities. My work led the City of New York to update its decades-old procurement code, enabling it to competitively purchase from non-traditional government contractors more nimbly (for an overview, check out my essay for The New York Times). I also served on the New York Governor and Mayor’s “New” New York expert panel, tasked with reviving the region’s economy coming out of COVID-19. In 2024, I miraculously snuck in to claim the last spot on City & State's "Women 100."

I like to write, speak, and make art about cities, with recent pieces in the New York Times, Financial Times, Bloomberg's City Lab, Vital City, and Brookings Metro, and an exhibit at the 2025 Venice Biennale. In 2014,  I was a National Geographic Explorer, covering the geopolitics of cities in Eastern Europe. While I am a proud fourth generation New Yorker, I grew up in Beijing in the 1990s, and spent my post-college years in Copenhagen—experiences which shape my work and writing.

Before I started working with government, I worked with housing technology startups. I was on the early team at Sidewalk Labs, Google’s urban tech incubator, the Chief Revenue Officer at Nabr, a housing company, and an investor at Zigg Capital, a venture fund focused on real estate.

I graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton's School of Public & International Affairs on a 50% need-based scholarship and a merit scholarship from the Newspaper Guild of New York. I later attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where I concentrated on real estate. I am a graduate of Coro Leadership New York and of Hunter College High School.