Vincent Van Buskirk
About Vincent Van Buskirk
Vincent Van Buskirk is a Founding Engineer at Pledge Health, having previously held positions as a Senior Software Engineer at The New York Times and a Graduate Research Assistant at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism.
Work at Pledge Health
Vincent Van Buskirk currently holds the position of Founding Engineer at Pledge Health, a company that is part of Y Combinator's Winter 2023 batch. He has been with the organization since 2024, contributing to its development and engineering efforts. His role involves leveraging his extensive software engineering background to help shape the company's technology and product offerings.
Previous Experience at The New York Times
Vincent Van Buskirk worked at The New York Times as a Senior Software Engineer from 2022 to 2024. In this role, he was responsible for developing software solutions that supported the publication's digital journalism efforts. Prior to this position, he served as a Software Engineer at the same organization from 2019 to 2021, where he contributed to various projects aimed at enhancing the user experience and functionality of the newspaper's digital platforms.
Education and Expertise
Vincent Van Buskirk earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics and History from the University of California, Berkeley, completing his studies from 2011 to 2016. He furthered his education by obtaining a Master of Science in Data Journalism from Columbia University - Graduate School of Journalism from 2021 to 2022. Additionally, he pursued a Graduate Certificate in Artificial Intelligence at Columbia Engineering from 2022 to 2024, enhancing his technical expertise in the field.
Background in Software Engineering
Vincent Van Buskirk has a diverse background in software engineering, having worked at various organizations prior to his current role. He was a Software Engineer at PayPal for one year from 2018 to 2019 and served as a Software Engineer at Agent IQ from 2017 to 2018. He also gained teaching experience as an Assistant Software Engineering Instructor at Hack Reactor in 2017. His early career included a position as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism in 2022.
Internship Experience
Vincent Van Buskirk completed an internship as a Financial Analyst Intern at The 1947 Partition Archive from 2013 to 2014. This role provided him with experience in financial analysis and contributed to his understanding of historical and cultural narratives, which complements his academic background in Economics and History.