I am the Founder & Executive Director of Kindling, a nonprofit with the mission to tackle fire safety inequalities and empower people to be safe and feel safe in their homes, communities and cities. Through consultancy, research, education, programming, strategic action, and advocacy, we aim to support improvements in safety and resilience to fire and other threats. We specialise in development of inclusive approaches to improve fire safety and fire resilience in low-income communities, humanitarian contexts and Low-and Middle-Income Countries – e.g. pilot projects in informal settlements, city fire safety and resilience strategy planning, integrated systems-based approaches. We are here to support humanitarian and development actors to pilot interventions, gather evidence and insights, inform relevant policies and develop tools and guidance for practitioners, so that fire safety can be integrated into holistic decision making in the field.

I worked with Arup for 6 years, based from Arup's Boston (US), Hond Kong SAR, and London (UK) offices. I worked on projects across five continents and various sectors, including energy, rail, aviation, science and industry, education, residential, healthcare, government and international development. My project work spanned across a wide range of regulatory contexts, both in a traditional fire engineering role as well as in more specific roles such as being an Assistant to Expert Witness Barbara Lane for Phase 1 of the UK Public Inquiry for Grenfell Tower, the deadliest residential fire in the UK since WWII. I specialized in providing context appropriate fire consulting for projects in emerging economies and less/un-regulated environments.I led Arup’s global multidisciplinary skills group on City Fire Resilience which aims to help clients, communities and cities understand their systemic fire challenges and make informed decisions that support resilient, sustainable and safe development. I led development of Arup’s Framework for Fire Safety in Informal Settlements and global programme in this area. By bringing together diverse stakeholders in development and humanitarian contexts, the team aimed to develop practical tools and guidance that enabled effective financial and social investments in fire risk reduction. I regularly presented at key conferences and events, advocating for fire to be better considered in holistic resilience planning and for investments in resilient infrastructure and community risk reduction.

I was an Applications Engineer in Tyco's Technical Services group, providing technical support for Tyco's water-based fire suppression business. This technical support included fire protection design, engineering calculations, code consulting, product expertise, and hands-on training. I also performed fire protection design services and calculate the fluid delivery times (FDT) for Tyco customers.

I was selected to be part of Tyco's two-year engineering rotational program. I spent her first year of the program in Tyco's Innovation and New Ventures group. I was the lead engineer on a research project developing disruptive technologies for the US residential fire sprinkler market. I managed and executed full-scale fire tests with cross-functional teams, performed data analysis, and presented the results to senior management.

I supported project managers, estimators, superintendents, office managers with various responsibilities. I helped estimators by researching subcontractors and contacting them to collect bids. I worked closely with project managers by awarding bids, creating project schedules, and meeting with clients, and also created several Operations & Maintenance (O & M) manuals to close-out projects.

As a summer research fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), I worked closely with the developers of the FIre Dynamics Simulator (FDS). I utilized MATLAB to verify the mathematical models of FDS Version 6.0 and compared the analytical and numerical solutions of specified scenarios to test convergence. I presented my results to dozens of researchers and my peers.