Born and raised in Upstate NY, I have been in and out of New York and London for the last seven years. Now I'm in DC for a fella'ship.

I'm a pretty goofy and laid back guy that likes to laugh uproariously as often as think quietly. (Sometimes I laugh quietly and think uproariously, too.) I'm also very curious and I love to learn. So if you want to talk about social class in the Ottoman Empire, or how to tie knots, I'm totally down to listen.

Importantly, I spend a lot of time walking and wandering around town without any real destination or purpose other than seeing whatever it is there is to see. I'm a dawdler. A lollygagger. A dillydallyer.

I work in global health research and AIDS activism and had been working for a medical humanitarian organization in New York before I moved to DC. Now I work for an AIDS advocacy organization.

Picking cheese for parties; giving advice (or so I'm told); learning new instruments; making a solid cup of tea; navigating; remembering birthdays; killing time; sneaking the occasional pet from passing dogs.

Beard? I'm pretty smiley, so people have pointed that out, too. Also, I have this killer leather bag that I got in Morocco like ten years ago, and every time I use it someone will, without fail, compliment me on it. Needless to say, I have to take it everywhere I go.

I tend to favor nonfiction, or at least have been lately, but in terms of classic novels, I could read 'Wuthering Heights,' 'Dracula,' and 'The Great Gatsby' a few times a year and not tire of them. I just started reading Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth,' which I have been looking forward to getting the chance to read for a while now. As I said, I work in global health, so I'm usually reading at least one book about AIDS or something cheerful like that. Beyond books, I read the New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, The New Yorker, Harpers, The Nation, Monocle, The NYT and The Guardian on a regular basis. OH! And ApartmentTherapy.com, which I probably spend the most time reading.

I'm pretty slow about getting into new shows, but I love Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, New Girl, and The Daily Show. And I usually find myself re-watching all seven seasons of the West Wing at some point every year... I also have a soft spot for UK programing, so I dig Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Gavin and Stacey, Foyle's War, Call the Midwife, Eastenders, etc. Oh! And the New Years Day Twilight Zone marathon is probably the best use of television I can think of.

- Tea with chocolate biscuits (Truly, that is the first thing that came to mind...)
- NPR and the BBC
- My passport
- A wool blanket
- A copy of Mile Davis' 'Kind of Blue'
- Cheese

Traveling and where I would like to go next. I LOVE maps and thinking up elaborate overland journeys to out of the way places. Some day, I would love to take a series of trains from London to Beijing, or take a ship to St. Helena and see what they're getting up to out there on that little island.

Perhaps less interestingly, I also spend quite a bit of time thinking about the future of social welfare and healthcare in the world. That, and cheese. And really big, fluffy dogs.

It's a toss-up between meeting friends at the pub for a couple of drinks, or hanging at home watching a movie — usually both.

When it came out in 1995, I saw the film Jumanji—get ready—16 times in the theater. I still wonder about how that cinematic binge—and that's probably all you can really call it—might be affecting me and my life choices. Come to think of it, I do almost always turn down any offer to play a board game... The risk is too great.