After spending early childhood in the U.S., I grew up in France and attended French primary and secondary schools, earning my science baccalauréat from the Lycée international de St.-Germain-en-Laye. I moved back to the U.S. for university, and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1989. My studies there focused on the politics and economics of development, and on Indian and African history.
I did graduate work in political economy of development at Harvard from 1990 to 1996. I spent five months in 1992 and ten months in 1994-95 based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, conducting fieldwork on the development and politics of the electric power sector in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
In 1996 I left graduate school for the private sector. I worked for CERA, the energy sector consultancy (now IHS-CERA) until 2002. In CERA’s global electric power and Africa practices, I advised major oil and electricity investors, banks, and government agencies, and ran a research partnership with the World Bank. In addition, I assisted CERA’s Chairman, Daniel Yergin, with special projects including his widely-acclaimed book The Commanding Heights and the 8-hour public television documentary and BAFTA award-winning educational Web site that resulted from it.
Since 2002 I have been a freelancer, with the exception of three years on staff at WNYC public radio in New York from 2006 to 2009, as the station’s culture reporter. I’ve written and reported about the arts and music since 2004, particularly for the Boston Globe, for whom I’ve written hundreds of stories. My freelance work includes journalism as well as consulting projects that draw on my background and continued interest and involvement in political economy, public affairs, and international development.
Along the way I’ve developed extensive experience in every aspect of writing and editing, along with radio production, communications and media strategy, and training. I’m fluent in French and can get by in German and rudimentary Spanish.
