Terence was born in Boulder, Colorado and raised in two communities, first in a northern neighborhood of what many refer to as the People’s Republic of Boulder, and second in Niwot, a small town almost entirely surrounded by farmland. Those two communities shaped him as a citizen, where he saw the rapid urbanization of one community, growing by almost 15% in one decade, as compared to the idyllic small-community living of another. After two semesters off-campus, one interning in D.C. and one studying in Cameroon, West Africa, Terence graduated magna cum laude from Dickinson College with a degree in International Studies, with plans of becoming a diplomat. But after graduating in the midst of the Great Recession, the economy had other plans. In his career, Terence has been a tech support line operator, twice a restaurant server, and thrice an entrepreneur and software product/project manager, leading the development of products that helped his colleagues raise over $18 million in venture funding. Now he’s hoping to use his spirit of innovation to build a grassroots, no-PAC-or-corporate-money movement to push government on Beacon Hill forward.
In his spare time, Terence runs an online advocacy project for federal decentralization called the Decent Federalism Project. As with so many Bay Staters, Terence initially moved to Massachusetts for school, and has undertaken two years of graduate study in linguistics at Boston University, where he focused on intercultural communication. He loves to travel, and has visited five continents, four of them twice or more. Of those, he’s lived in seven major cities on three continents, including about half a year in Cameroon, West Africa, and 9 months splitting his time working between London and Amsterdam. A survivor himself, Terence is a fierce advocate for survivors of sexual assault and abuse. He currently lives with his partner Sara in downtown Gloucester, and takes walks downtown with his 4-year-old rescue dog Coco just as often as he has the energy.