I grew up in a very small town in rural Missouri called New Haven. My first job was working in a meat processing plant and helping out on my grandparents farm raising black angus cattle! I graduated public high school with a class of 42, no AP credit, and very little college prep. I wasn't even in the top 10%; a C- in Algebra 2 knocked my class rank down to 5. My high school classmates primarily went to East Central Community College, if they continued on to college at all.

My father, the superintendent of New Haven, implemented a Chromebook learning program which was incredibly influential on my future in computer science and tech policy. My Chromebook was my first real exposure to computer science, and I saw firsthand how technology can make incredible impacts on peoples' lives, both for better and for worse.

My family still lives near New Haven, and I love to visit, mainly to see my dog Elsa, catch up with my sister and brother-in-law Hannah and Keven, play golf with my dad Kyle, or watch The Bachelor with my mom Dena. My family are some of the best people on the planet and show me overwhelming support, wherever I may be.

I received a full scholarship to Mississippi State University as a Provost Scholar. Upon arrival, I quickly became involved in undergraduate research. Motivated by science fiction, I was thrilled to take part in developing ethical and cutting-edge technology, leading to multiple publications in international research journals in artifical intelligence, virtual reality, and human-computer interaction. Around junior year, I interned with the Senate Commerce Committee and pivoted to focus on technology policy. Along the way, I also picked up an English and Math minor, as well as research into Anglo-Saxons and Old English.

I was heavily involved at Mississippi State and remain a very proud Bulldog. I served in the Student Senate, joined United Nations, was co-editor-in-chief of a creative arts journal, and joined the nationally-ranked women's basketball team as a practice team member. I also saw a national championship in baseball, studied at Oxford University, and delivered a TedxTalk. Most importantly, however, I was chosen on behalf of Misissippi State's top scholars to petition for the flag to remove its confederate symbols, handing out 400+ letters to every Congressperson on the day of the vote and watching the historic moment from the balcony of the Mississippi Senate.

Upon graduation in December 2021, I had a 7-month "gap year" before starting my Masters. I worked two jobs during this time: as a software engineer and data scientist at Camgian, and as a bartender at Dave's Dark Horse Tavern on the weekends. At Camgian, I became a much better programmer and worked on groundbreaking deep learning models, using telemetry signals to predict industrial failures. The work I did is currently being shipped to manufacturing hubs across the country.

On the weekends, I worked at Dave's Dark Horse Tavern and became a true Mississippian. Working a minimum-wage job in Mississippi was a humbling experience, and, through it, I witnessed the heartbreaking plight of some absolutely amazing people in one of the poorest states in the country. Mississippi is a wonderful place with even better people who fully recognize the problems of their state and work effortlessly to fix them. I intend to give back to Mississippi one day, doing pro bono work after finishing my JD.

Attending Duke was my dream since I was young. The only person I knew from New Haven who went out of state for college was a girl who went to Duke on a basketball scholarship when I was in 2nd grade. From that point on, I was a diehard Duke fan. I was accepted for undergraduate but was unable to afford it, so as soon as I was accepted for my Masters in Public Policy, I knew instantly that I'd soon be in Durham.

I wasted no time at Duke, immediately joining the Cyber Policy lab despite a catastophic ankle break during my first week in Durham (I became known as Scooter Guy across campus). All the same, I quickly joined several projects and continue to do more ad hoc work with the lab. My primary projects are: investigating the extremely shady data brokers marketplace, working with industry leaders and policy officials from developing nations to bolster their cybersecurity capacity, and semiconductor value chain analysis work for the OECD. My work has been featured in Forbes, Politico, CNN, Bloomberg, The Record, Gizmodo, and more. I found a niche as a privacy advocate and, after taking classes at Duke Law, became set on law school and am currently applying.

I am also proud to call myself a devoted Cameron Crazie (you'll see me painted blue at most basketball games) and am soaking up as much of the Duke experience as I possibly can. When not in the Sanford Building or Duke Law, you can usually find me playing piano at the Wellness Center, sipping a Guinness at the James Joyce, playing basketball at the Wilson, volunteering with an after-school robotics program at Durham Public Schools (paying it back to public education for my Chromebook in New Haven) or consuming an inhumane amount of hotdogs at a Durham Bulls game.