is 

Title: Verticality Evangelist

Gender: Male

Age: 26

Sun Sign: Aries

Chinese Sign: Water Dog

Location: Washington, DC

After a near-complete freshman year at the University of Rochester in 2001, I embarked on the proverbial youth self-discovery trip to Europe–in my case, Dublin, Ireland–with a pocketful of cash and a barely clothed Curriculum Vitae. While I had hoped to land a job at a children's homeless shelter or, at a minimum, a decent pub, a short supply of cash and two weeks of unemployment found me desparate for a job. So one day, as I walked down a familiar Dublin lane, I encountered a “Help Wanted” sign in the window of a fine retail venue–well, to be exact, a wholesale leather jacket store. But hey… even if it starved the soul, it certainly fed the stomach–with plenty of Irish breakfasts at that.

Four months and a few too many Guinnesses later, I decided that the lush life of an American in Dublin conflicted brashly with more high-minded ideals of making a difference in the lives of inner-city youth (and perhaps the world). So I applied for AmeriCorps–a domestic Peace Corps initiated by Bill Clinton–they accepted me, and I spent the next two years serving the public good, through various internships and civic initiatives.

Although I didn't know it, my real life would begin at age 23, on Saturday, June 25, 2005, in New York City, at around 2pm (if memory serves me correctly), when I heard Andrew Cohen speak for the first time. Within an hour and a half, everything had changed, and my life priorities instantaneously flipped upside down. Sparked by Andrew's passionate talk, the deeper I peered into my own narcissism, cloaked in a thick veil of idealism and overconfident assertions of wanting to “be the change,” the more I realized that Andrew–a man about whom I knew so little–had discovered something that could lead to a radically better future. Despite my lesser, yet disconcertingly powerful, intentions, “I” became history. The rest, to be trite, was the future.

Professionally speaking, I started Verticality Group, LLC, a startup marketing and growth consultancy for small businesses and non-profits with a good mission.

Academically, I just finished my undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Though I am eternally grateful for the opportunities it afforded me, I am equally struck by the profound lack of interiority–and the correlative abundance of felt separation–among students. I guess that's what happens when one studies the exteriors of the cosmos alone.

So I've come to believe, from the bottom of my soul, that if I want to change the world, I must evolve beyond the sense that I'm separate and come together with others in the passionate pursuit of the Universe Project–and, quite literally, evolve the interiors of the Kosmos.

And I'm looking forward to the rare and utterly positive partnership with Zaadz/Gaia in achieving that goal! :)