Carter Oswood

My previous experience has spanned multiple industries and continents: from photography, journalism, and teaching after my undergraduate — to operations, systems design, and product development after a master's. Several of these roles I learned on the ground, continuously building on previous skillsets — a university curriculum, a design studio, a proofreading company, nonprofit management, program development, and the software that followed.

Ozvåag

With years spent across a spectrum of sectors, I found myself utilizing the same process and creating similar functions to address problems at every level. Ozvåag is the result of that process — a solo venture building software and products for the real, operational problems that off-the-shelf tools never quite fit, across businesses, nonprofits, and local governments.

Photography

My first camera was bought selling magazines at age 12, which led to shooting for the high-school paper, then freelancing all through college. The summer after graduation, a first wedding in Costa Rica opened into a decade of professional work across the globe — weddings, portraits, photojournalism — a passion that funded my education, my visas, and the moves between nearly every job on this timeline. Beyond that, it's always been how I tell stories and connect with the people around me. Explore →

Academic

UndergraduateDrake University, United States of America

A deep distaste for unfettered capitalism, paired with a genuine dislike of American advertising, led me to graduate with a degree in marketing (College of Business & Public Administration) and creative advertising (School of Journalism & Mass Communication) while designing a photojournalism concentration (College of Arts & Sciences).

Master'sCharles University, Czech Republic

A love of history and a learned appreciation of Great Power politics led me to earn a master's in Geopolitical Studies from Charles University in Prague. My thesis read money as an instrument of state power — a geoeconomic analysis of how Chinese aid, trade, and state-sponsored investment in Central Asia advanced China's strategic interests and reshaped the calculus between Beijing and Moscow, exercising influence through capital rather than force. That same reading of the world drives The Daily Diplomat — the independent daily geopolitical cable I edit across eight regional desks.

PhD — proposal pending

Applied food-security experience and geoeconomic analysis meet in an open-ended question: as climate stress redraws the agronomic map of the Iberian Peninsula, what unintended consequences follow — for the communities that work the land, the economies built around it, and the assumptions that never accounted for a shifting climate? The work is less an argument than an inquiry into those downstream effects — and the geopolitical pressure they exert on the region and the wider EU framework.

Food Systems

Executive director of Feed Iowa First, a food-security nonprofit — built a staff of seven, raised $1.7M+, and moved 53,310 pounds of produce into the county in a single year. Launched the Equitable Land Access program: land, equipment, and zero start-up cost for landless farmers growing culturally relevant crops, on a 20-year land lease. Turned a retired bookmobile into a mobile food pantry, sited by census data. Chaired the Linn County Food Systems Council; graduate certificate in sustainable food systems, Harvard Extension (2021).