My work began in newsrooms — first as a reporter, then producing coverage that crossed borders more easily than the people in it ever could. Three decades later, that same question still drives everything I do: what does it take for people to understand each other across real difference?

Along the way, that question took me into Philippine Studies, into classrooms on four continents, into consulting rooms with organizations trying to reach audiences unlike themselves, and eventually into writing — essays and books that try to hold onto the specificity of lived experience rather than flattening it into theory.

Today, that work takes several forms: writing essays and field notes on migration, identity, and communication; teaching and speaking at universities and institutions around the world; and advising organizations on how to communicate and adapt across cultures. All of it comes from the same place — a continuing curiosity about how people build lives, and meaning, across borders.

I split my time between Manila and wherever the work takes me next, which is, most years, several places at once.