If someone said they want to do what you're doing, what advice would you give them?

I have no idea, but if I had to, I guess I would say ‘just do you.’ Do the best that you can where you are until something slightly more interesting or fulfilling comes along. Then repeat. I recently read that Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, ‘If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.’"

How did you get to where you are today?
"In the most roundabout way possible: I grew up in Brooklyn, studied Philosophy and Fine Arts at Amherst College for about three years and then dropped out. I lived at the Sivananda Yoga Ashram on Paradise Island in the Bahamas where I became a certified yoga instructor. I lived in New York City where I worked as a fundraiser for the guy who lost to Michael Bloomberg in the 2001 mayor's race and then for the New York Civil Liberties Union. I left all that to study sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute. After graduation, I worked for a few sculptors as an assistant, for California Lawyers for the Arts. I interned and lived at Headlands Center for the Arts, did some advocacy work in the CA prison system, and exhibited sculpture all over town, including a show at the Exploratorium. I eventually ended up temping at SFMOMA in Individual Giving. The temp fundraising job went permanent, and then about a year later I moved over to my current department. The rest is history."

What's the best advice you've got along the way?
"Someone in baseball said, ‘Don't point to the outfield, just keep your head down and go about your business.’ I think that is the best advice. Just do your absolute best from moment to moment and the hits will come."

Photographed by Anna-Alexia Basile