What the resume doesn't hold — and why the questions matter as much as the answers.
I have spent my career at the intersection of technology, governance, and community — often as the only woman of colour in the room, always as the one helping define what the room is capable of.
I founded Professional Options LLC in 1995 and have spent nearly three decades advising corporations, nonprofits, governments, and coalitions across sectors. I co-founded the West Sound Technology Association, built an eight-county regional technology ecosystem from scratch, helped shape broadband and digital equity policy before those were mainstream concerns, and recently co-founded Convexus — a civic tech platform designed to move communities from dialogue to coordinated action.
But I am also a reader, a questioner, an adventurer. Rilke and Annie Dillard. The way mathematics appears in nature without being asked to. The things that don't fit in a credentials list but make sense of everything that does.
"I am everything I choose to be."
Some people know the consulting work. Some know the civic technology. Some know the writing, the podcasting, the farmers markets, the Emmy Award swag bags, the businesses built and sold across industries and continents. Charles knows all of it. This site holds a little more of it than anywhere else.