Hi, I’m David. I’m a full-stack software engineer. My primary web development experience is in full-stack PHP, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, and SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL).
My prior professional experience is in transportation planning, consulting, and project management, both within government and in the private sector. I have masters degrees in Transportation Engineering (M.S.) and City Planning (M.C.P.) from the University of California, Berkeley. Go Bears! 🐻 I’m enthusiastic about using civic innovation to improve public service delivery.
When I’m not thinking about technology or transportation, I also enjoy food, reading, learning languages, sewing, and getting outside on my two feet or a bike! 🚲
Projects I’ve Worked On in Transportation and Public Services
- I conducted a comprehensive review of the key drivers of elder abuse case complexity in San Francisco, analyzing over 21,000 case records in Stata and performing a survey of peer jurisdictions (conference slides here)
- I created and maintained the original transportation pages on the San Francisco City Scorecards website
- I worked with a team to improve staff processes and customer experience around Muni-related feedback through data analysis, business process mapping, customer & peer surveys, and lean process improvement
- I designed and implemented a study of the immediate impacts of implementing bus rapid transit on the Bx41 route in the Bronx, including statistically modeling the dwell time of NYC Transit buses serving bus stops
Some books I’ve enjoyed
Because why not.
- Sister, Outsider by Audre Lorde, an incredible collection of essays with real staying power. Her observations and reflections on racism, the creative power of anger, the uses of the erotic, and achieving social change are deeply insightful. Absolute canon.
- The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, a stunningly beautiful lesbian romance novel that became the film Carol. A quick and totally transporting read.
- How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones, I could not stop talking about this memoir.
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin is from a similar era as The Price of Salt (1956 and 1952 respectively); I couldn’t believe it was written then. Beautiful and moving.
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi was an important starting point for me on better understanding and committing to being antiracist.
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty despite being a pretty big book was a page turner the whole way through for me.
- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makai was a book I was so sad to finish because I wanted more time with these characters.
- Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis is a beautifully told story about a group of queer women who find a haven on the coast during the Uruguayan dictatorship in the 1970s, and their intertwined lives over the following decades. Exquisite.
- Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H., is a wonderful memoir by a queer hijabi Muslim immigrant. It goes back and forth between taking a story of a prophet from the Koran and weaving it in with their life, and it brought me to tears at how beautiful it is.
- The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai follows a family from the early 20th century under French colonialism to the present. Beautiful historical fiction, and I learned a lot about the 20th century history of Vietnam.
- Circe by Madeline Miller really surprised me! I thought I found Greek mythology boring, but this was captivating. I honestly recommend this as an audiobook, it was a very impressive and melodic reading.
- Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart is a story of two teenage boys in Glasgow, Scotland (one Protestant, one Catholic) who become friends and fall in love. It’s almost hard to recommend this book; it’s unbearably painful at times (content warning: sexual violence/assault), but also so stunning. Reading this book broke me a little bit. Glowing endorsement, right?