My Story

I come from a family of entrepreneurs and have always liked building things, whether woodworking or writing code for applications. My mom is Polish, my dad is Swedish, and I grew up bilingual and have lived in both countries. 

I like schedules, checklists, and “productive activities.” This helped me do well in high school and achieve top grades while excelling at skipping the classes I thought were a waste of time. I was fortunate enough to have parents who fully supported my decision on how to spend my time.

After graduating high school, I got two undergraduate degrees in Sweden in economics and mathematics. I have always liked math, and applying mathematical rigor to answering economic questions appealed to me. I went on to get a Ph.D. at the University of Southern California. This is also where I met my husband during the first week of math camp.

When I started my Ph.D., I thought I wanted to be an academic professor and do research, but pretty early, I realized that I like to solve real-world problems and see the immediate impact of the solutions. This led me to work for various technology companies, from early startups to established companies like Zillow and Chewy, where I am currently an Associate Director on the Applied Economics Research team. 

In addition to my work in technology, I am an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. I teach and develop undergraduate and graduate data science and big data econometrics courses. I also serve as the Tech Roundtable Chair at the National Association for Business Economics, the largest international association of applied economists, strategists, academics, and policy-makers committed to applying economics.