Thomas Arminio Email & Phone Number

I'm Thomas. Throughout my life, there have been three constants: art, agriculture, and analysis.I started my career when I moved to upstate New York and became a farmer. I don't come from an agricultural background, so this was a surprising move to some. To me, though, it made sense. I love food and I love learning, so why not learn how to grow food?Farming satiated my deep desire to learn. I learned about plants, animals, machines, minerals, soil, mycorrhizal fungi, bacteria, systems, budgets, and resilience. I learned how to work with all kinds of people. I also learned about organic and Biodynamic farming, which were the approaches that I practiced.After eight seasons of farming, I moved to East Africa, where I worked directly with smallholder farmers. I managed a complex program with a lot of moving parts and a lot of moving people. I also learned a lot about how rigorous analysis can drive great implementation and effective policy. I realized how much I love solving problems, big or small, quantitative or qualitative, simple or complex.After about five years, I moved back to the US and went to grad school, then ended up in Washington DC, where I live now. I am still learning so much, but with each of my experiences, my understanding of the world and how it works becomes more clear. This is the great unsung feature of having a professional life. Outside of making a living and growing professionally, there is a broad understanding of things that comes with years of diverse experience, success, and failure. I understand things better now and I want to extend that understanding to organizations by improving the way they work.Lastly, my worldview is forever undergirded by art and the narratives that guide it. Though my professional experiences have been diverse, unique, and valuable, my relationship with literature, music, and film have been critical to my ability to process these experiences. This, most of all, continues to direct me into my professional future.‡

Listed skills include Writing, Farm Management, Agriculture, Leadership, and 19 others.