Climate · Democracy · Innovation
I study broken systems, then build better ones.
Master of Public Policy candidate at UNC–Chapel Hill. From Boise, Idaho.
Chartering
President of Carolina Students’ Financial, working to charter the only not-for-profit financial institution run by students at a public university. A team of 45 has raised $406K in equity and $1.65M in deposit pledges.
Researching
Research and Policy Analyst at UNC’s Data-Driven EnviroLab, building a language model to read heat action plans from cities worldwide and surface what works.
Designing
Working with Innovate Carolina’s Design Innovation for the Public Good office while finishing an accelerated Master of Public Policy in Policy Design and Innovation.
I’m from Boise, Idaho, where the public schools helped make me who I am. My dad immigrated from Nepal; my mom grew up in a small Idaho town.
At UNC I studied public policy and sociology as a Morehead-Cain Scholar and graduated in 2026 with highest distinction and highest honors in public policy. I want a career designing policy that speeds the energy transition in America’s K–12 schools.
I like hard problems with real stakeholders, and I seek out people who disagree with me.
Founder and president. Started the effort in April 2025 with a group of 15 students, now a team of 45. We raised equity and deposit pledges and built relationships with state and federal regulators to charter the only student-run financial institution at a public university.
Co-founder and CFO of a youth-led nonprofit supporting Idaho trans youth and young human rights organizers.
Full-time policy research in Mexico City on methane abatement, plus a study of case law on the right to a healthy environment.
Board Vice President of a nonpartisan, youth-run voter registration nonprofit in Idaho. Helped register thousands of young voters, trained students at 20+ schools, and coached them to testify at the state legislature.
Full-time in Washington, D.C. Authored a report on the state of K–12 climate literacy from national survey data and supported the program’s response to federal pre-emption of climate education.
Organizer with the Sunrise Movement. Wrote climate and equity policy for school districts in Boulder, Evanston, Washington, Berkeley and Northampton.
Elected at 18 as the first student on the board. Helped pass a $300M budget with free breakfast for every student and raises for teachers, rewrote the dress code, and steered landmark clean-energy investments.
Directed a coalition of 2,000+ young people across Idaho, Oregon and Washington working for wild salmon recovery on the lower Snake River.
Honors thesis · 2026
Best Thesis Award · UNC Department of Public Policy
How can local governments advance climate policy at higher levels? Drawing on 41 interviews with organizers and officials in Austin, Charlotte and Portland, I argue that cities do it, often without meaning to, by resourcing and channeling social movements.
Advisors: Dr. Angel Hsu and Dr. Elizabeth Korver-Glenn
Read the thesis →Article · 2026
Why did Nepal’s Discord-organized Gen Z uprising produce lasting electoral change when peer movements collapsed? Built on interviews with 23 activists and five politicians during an independent study in Kathmandu, supported by the Morehead-Cain Lovelace Fund for Discovery.
Advisor: Dr. Evelyne Huber
Read the article →A course I designed and taught · Spring 2026
Through UNC’s Carolina Student Training and Research program (C-START), I taught my peers a one-credit course I built from my own research. After trips to Chile, Uruguay, Peru and Mexico, I designed a semester of weekly two-hour seminars on how movements have resisted and outlasted authoritarian rule, using primary sources, documentary film and guest speakers, and asked what they can teach us about defending democratic institutions.
Mentors: Professor Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Dr. Evelyne Huber
Earlier Idaho Climate Conversations, 2023Idaho Climate Conversations, June 2023. With a friend, I drove a Prius through all 44 Idaho counties in two weeks and recorded around 130 conversations with residents about the climate changes they were seeing. Funded by a community GoFundMe. Mentor: Dr. Aly Bean. Click to watch. · Meridian housing study, 2023Meridian housing study, spring 2023. With three Boise State classmates, I studied housing affordability for the Meridian City Council and recommended rental assistance, subsidies for affordable housing, and rezoning near the freeway. Mentors: Dr. Vanessa Fry and Dr. Krista Paulsen. Click to read the coverage.
Earlier U.S. Presidential ScholarU.S. Presidential Scholars Program. Honors about 160 graduating high school seniors nationwide for academic achievement, leadership and service. · National Merit ScholarNational Merit Scholarship Program. National recognition for top scorers on the PSAT/NMSQT among high school students. · Teen Vogue 21 Under 21Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21, 2022. Teen Vogue’s annual list of young changemakers, activists and artists making a substantial impact in their communities and the world.
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If you’re working on something ambitious and need someone who will run with it, I’d like to hear about it.