Welcome to christa.town

Hi, I’m Christa Hartsock.

professional things

I’m currently working as a software engineer and UX researcher on a consulting basis through my company topographic LLC. I’m available for work on interesting projects that move toward a better world—if you have something you’d like to talk about working on together, let’s chat (email: christa at topographic.llc).

In the recent past I’ve worked as:

  • a backend software engineer at Meedan, a non-profit working globally to address misinformation
  • a consulting engineer at 18F, the US federal government’s technology and design consultancy
  • an engineering manager, software engineer, and engineering lead at Code for America, working to improve access to criminal record relief as part of Clear My Record, and help ease the burden of getting safety net benefits through the Integrated Benefits Initiative and GetCalFresh.

Prior to working with government, I’ve worked as an engineer at the agile consultancy Pivotal Labs (RIP) and at another small product consultancy (also RIP); as a studio manager at Peter Rose and Partners, an architecture and urban design firm; as a travel guide writer in Barcelona, on a variety of cleanup crews; in many ice cream shops; and a number of other things.

non-professional things

I live in San Francisco with my husband, Jim Fingal, and our rescue bully, Piglet. We’re currently working on starting a cool new magazine called the San Francisco Review of Whatever with some of our friends. You can read Elisabeth Nicula, one of those friends, first describe the idea of the Review in The Back Room.

I help out with tech stuff (hardware, software, etc) at BFF.fm, a San Francisco community radio station based in the Mission, and regularly volunteer at various community greenspaces around the city—most frequently Garden for the Environment and the native plant nursery at Sutro Stewards. They’re all wonderful places and communities; come to a volunteer day if you’d like to learn more!

I co-founded and helped run Logic Magazine, on which I continue on the board; and have been running a small forum I built and, more recently, a Mastodon instance for friends.

contact

I exist a few other places:

If you’d like to talk, shoot me a message via email. I’m often slow at responding, but do have the best intentions. Short, direct asks usually get a response more quickly.

Thanks for visiting; here is a gift:

Piglet, my grey and white bully mix dog, presenting her belly for a rub.