My Story

After graduating from architecture school in 2020, I found myself working in construction project management for a year before making a big personal leap and moving to Spain in 2022. Career-wise, my back was up against a wall. I couldn’t practice as an architect until I certified my degree abroad and work in related fields was hard to come by given my urban planning vocabulary in Spanish was limited at the time.

So I turned my love for explaining how to build safer cities to the internet. Little did I know at the time, I would be stepping into the world of digital marketing. Alongside building Studio Leonardo, I worked part-time with Gary Vaynerchuk’s team, helping expand his international reach across 6 languages. That experience sharpened my content skills, which eventually led to a full-time role with Strong Towns as their Video Producer.

Within a year at Strong Towns I helped to grow the org’s instagram following from 50k -> 120k and and produced both long-form and short-form content featuring local planning success stories that collectively earned over 10 million views. It was exciting, meaningful work, but something was still missing.

Amplifying others’ voices felt gratifying, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to be done to bridge the communication gap between the urban design profession and the everyday citizens who care deeply about their place. I believe there is a way for us to use all this online connection to bring everyone into the design process, so we can:

A) make citizens more confident to identify what makes their city great and

B) their ideas can be considered in real-time, not just on presentation days.

Four years later, Studio Leonardo is my attempt to help bridge that gap. My love for the design process has never wavered but now I’m using every skill I have gained along the way to bring more people into the conversation.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you somewhere else on the internet!