Hey there! Chances are we already know each other well, we’ve adventured the world together, and you may or may not have all sorts of incriminating evidence of our escapades. But just in case you’re a new friend, here’s some info about your Stevenson host, Wren Dougherty!
Foiling Habits
We’ve all got bad habits. Foiling is mine. If you’re headed to the gorge, you probably have a similar problem! I was sent down this dark path via kiteboarding, but have since sold all my kites along with my soul to the carbon Gods of Foils. You’ll find me Downwind SUP’ing, winging, flat water pop-up attempting, dock starting, or otherwise messing around in the river most days.
I’m a team rider for Mikes Lab foils, Ozone Wings, and NJS Designs, so I’m often testing out new equipment. Happy to talk to you about foils, or skip the foil talk and instead ask you aggressively invasive questions about your personal life. The best gear is the gear you have with you let’s just get out there and have some fun!
Work
I’m a Senior Staff Research Engineer at Airbnb, focused on the tools, methodologies, and philosophies that we need to build Machine Learning and AI systems that are fair, ethical, effective, and legally compliant. Yeah, that probably sounds awful, but it’s my dream job! I know, I’ve always had weird dreams. Sometimes I wake myself up screaming.
I often work too many hours, having too much fun hanging out with my phenomenal team of lawyers, engineers, data scientists, and more. Don’t worry, I’ll encourage you to put down your work and go hit it for me! Or I’ll come with you, but you may see me sitting in the river with my phone out furiously typing out memos. I’m not in distress, just pretending REAL HARD to be at a desk like a normal person.
I’m fortunate enough to be fully remote, which is how I manage to spend my summers in the gorge and winters in Puerto Rico (and lots of time in lots of places in between)! If you think the gorge in the summer is amazing – just wait until you see Puerto Rico in the winter. It is a hidden foil paradise, I hope to see you out there too!
Pets
I somehow ended up with a houseplant. Can you remind me to water it? Or… to not water it too much? Do you want a houseplant?