What do you do as ICONS’ Collaboration and Outreach Specialist?
I do a little bit of everything! Primarily my role is to coordinate between my team-- ICONS-- and other teams and individuals inside and outside of the university, this can look like creating/coordinating events, going to conferences, outreach to schools and organizations, or answering customer service and tech questions. It can also be more programmatic like helping manage multi team projects like the DoD wargaming project that wrapped last year. Since we are such a small team it means pitching in where I can, sending invoices, reading through white pages, even TAing a few classes.
How did your professional journey lead you to the ICONS Project, and what experiences shaped your path along the way?
Anyone who knows me knows that my career has meandered-- almost every position has been diagonal (if not a random leap) from the last. A lot of what brought me to ICONS was happenstance and benevolent timing. But like most of my professional life there is a through line, I have always been most interested in people, why they do things, how environment affects them, culture, motivation, and all of my jobs have centered around people. From direct services in DC working with folks living with HIV and experiencing houselessness, to working in EdTech, to a non profit supporting veterans in education. Through those experiences I realized how important education is, and that access to education and meaningful educational experiences can be transformative. When I first heard of this job I wasn't sure that START and ICONS were the right fit, but the more I learned the more I realized that it would be a great fit. I am interested in people and their motivations which fits well with START and ICONS' research around social complexity, policy, and terrorism. And working at a university and specifically with ICONS with simulations fit with my interest in education.
What excites you most about the work?
I love being able to work with different people and I love getting to learn new things every day. I get to work with really intelligent thoughtful people on a variety of different projects, and I get to see how every part of my work feeds into the other parts. I also really love being able to share what I have learned with others through conferences, collaborations, simulations, and more.
What’s a favorite ICONS collaboration or outreach project you’ve worked on?
I am really excited for the project I'm working on now. We are offering ICONS simulations to all Maryland high schools for free until the end of the 2026-2027 school year. It might seem like this answer is an advertisement, but that's really not who I am, or how I see my positions. I am genuinely proud that we are able to offer this to students and educators in Maryland. Having seen students experience simulations, and having done similar experiences in my own education I see how much fun they are, and how much learning can come from *doing* something, and not just reading about it or listening to a lecture. School and teacher budgets can be tight, and I hope this offering will allow more students and teachers to have the experience without worrying about fitting the cost in the budget.
How do you measure outreach success and choose which partnerships to focus on?
My favorite measure of success is the feedback that we get from instructors and students for simulations, and for research projects getting to hear what our work has made people consider. My biggest challenge and biggest success in outreach is finding the best ways to reach more people. Once people have experienced ICONS they generally come back, but in this digital world reaching the right people at the right time can be challenging. When choosing partnerships I try to consider where people are both in time and space and to prioritize the opportunities where people can best integrate ICONS into their existing work. I am not someone who likes or wants to convince people that they need something that they don't, so I try to find where ICONS can really *add* to and individual or company's work. My hope is for people to say I wish I had known about this sooner, it added so much to my classroom or workplace, or research.
What are your goals or plans for the future?
There are so many ways to answer this question! This fall I'm headed back to school to pursue a graduate degree in anthropology here at UMD, I'm really hoping to have a lush, productive garden this summer, and I want to make sure that my work at ICONS leads to more people being able to have more interesting educational experiences.
Outside of work, how do you like to spend your time and recharge?
I love gardening, reading,
What advice would you give to someone starting in this field?
I would say to stay open to the opportunities that present themselves to you. Almost every job I have had has been something that I hadn't previously imagined myself doing, and each time I have surprised myself with how much I have learned, what I am able to accomplish, and how well my skills have been able to translate. Instead of focusing on a dream company/org or title, think about what you like to do as a person, and how that would fit into the job-- do you like people? Do you like working on a team? Do you like focusing on one thing or switching between projects? What are you really interested in? What would you like to talk to your friends about over dinner? Those questions will give you more of an idea of if a job will fit then the title. Flexibility and openness have gotten me into places that I wouldn't have dreamed I would end up in. Lastly I would say keep learning! Being curious and being open to continuing to lean new things and believing that I *can* learn things outside my comfort zone has been one of the most helpful things in my career, but even more in my life generally.