About Aimee

My Story

In December 2024, somewhere between tasting rooms in Napa Valley, my husband and I started listening to AI podcasts. OpenAI had just kicked off a rapid release streak, and we tuned in on day one. For the rest of the trip, I found myself waiting for each announcement like a kid counting down to something big.

Back home, I read Ethan Mollick's Co-Intelligence in two days and had what he calls the "three sleepless nights." I made a decision: if I want to thrive in the world that's coming, I need to become genuinely fluent in AI. Not just aware of it.

Going All-In

I didn't dabble. I committed. I now spend six to eight hours a week on AI podcasts, including Everyday AI, The Artificial Intelligence Show, The AI Daily Brief, and Dwarkesh Patel. I've been enrolled in SmarterX's AI Mastery Academy since December 2024. I watch Andrej Karpathy's deep-dive videos on how language models actually work. I read papers from the major labs whenever I find them.

But I didn't stay in learning mode. I started building: custom GPTs and Gems, data visualizations, forecasting tools, and internal knowledge systems. I taught workshops, tested our campus AI platform before launch, and helped teams prototype real use cases. I've presented at university events, and I continue to look for ways to share what I've learned.

The Three Buckets

As I built, I started organizing my tools into three categories: Assistants that automate repetitive tasks, Builders that let me create new tools through plain language, and Visualizers that help me learn new capabilities with AI as my guide.

This framework helped me go from “AI is interesting” to “AI is saving me 8-10 hours a week.” More importantly, it gave me cognitive space to tackle projects I'd wanted to do for years but never had capacity for.

Learn more about the Three Buckets →

My Background

I'm not a computer scientist. I'm a research administrator with 21 years at Colorado State University, in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. I've contributed to 35+ NIH training grant proposals, with 19 funded. I currently direct the Training Grant Support Office and oversee programs supporting 60+ trainees each year.

That background is exactly why I see AI differently than a tech evangelist might. I know which tasks eat your time. I know which shortcuts actually hold up under audit. I understand the skepticism, because I work alongside people who have it.

Why I Built This Site

A year ago, I was figuring this out from scratch. There was no roadmap and no one in my professional circle to ask. I built aimeeoke.ai to be the resource I wished I'd had: open-access frameworks, honest guidance, and practical starting points for research administrators who are ready to get started.

You don't need to go as deep as I did. But you do need someone who has, and who can show you the shortcuts.

Where This Leads

The three buckets were my starting point. But the tools keep evolving, and so has what's possible. What began as automating individual tasks has grown into building entire systems — this website, conference platforms, tools that serve whole teams. I built this site through conversation with AI, not traditional web development.

You don't need to start there. Start with one bucket, one task, one quick win. The frontier will still be there when you're ready.