Leading and supporting federal and state projects to make an impact.

Selectively working with mission driven organizations to apply research, learning, and design strategy to complex problem spaces.

Teaching Design, People, and Society as part of the Masters in Design-Interaction Design program.

When I joined Truss (a self-funded startup in high growth), design and research were contracted out and product management was non existent. When I left the organization 3.5 years later:* I had built a research and design practice close to 20 people, including 4 managers who reported to me. * “Discovery and Framing” was one of our strongest business offerings, helping government and enterprise organizations make better decisions.* I introduced the value of product management and recruited one of its first product managers to re-align a large and unwieldy project.* Engineering and design worked together to build component-based design systems.* Accessibility and inclusive design started from day one.* Content strategists were equal members of the design practice, both in responsibility and compensation.* Stakeholders raved about working with us.* User research and service design methods were leveraged internally to improve hiring, onboarding, and employee satisfaction.Accomplishing this was not easy. I prioritized hiring senior folks with consulting experience, which ended up anchoring the practice, many projects, and sales. (After the first 18 months, we begin to hire designers earlier in their careers which was exciting and due) I worked hard to make it easy for the smart folks I hired to “manage up,” take ownership for areas they were passionate about, and tell me when I was wrong or missing something. I put my efforts into creating and modeling a psychologically safe workspace. I sponsored projects to offer ways for people to grow in their careers. I kept emotional tabs on every designer during the scariest parts of the Covid lockdown, and our team had some of the lowest attrition in the organization during and after this time. I served on the senior leadership team, did strategic planning, and advocated for sound strategy and a human centered business approach.

I joined the state of CA on a huge initiative to overhaul the country’s largest child welfare case management system. It was a complex legacy software project with diverse IT departments, politicians, unions, and hundreds of social workers trying to bring human-centered and agile practices into government. I lead vision, product and design strategy initiatives with a cross-vendor team of ~12 designers. We established and maintained user-centered practices, from research strategy to design system libraries. I recommended that leadership build something greenfield, separate from the legacy system to immediately add value, momentum, and build trust. I advocated for product vision to be tightly coupled with key outcomes and brought in product management consultants. I identified user and business priorities that still inform the project to this day.

* Managed a team of design and product strategists to position government agencies to succeed at building nimble, user centered digital services. * Part of movement to bring human centered and agile approaches to digital services.* Worked directly with executives, procurement and program managers at many federal agencies such as: Department of Labor, Social Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, US Treasury, etc.* Designed and ran multi-day vision, strategy and user research workshops.* Mentored designers and researchers

* Conducted user research, ux design, interaction design and creative direction for B2C, B2B, and enterprise products.* Directed a distributed team of product designers building out a Platform as a Service (PAAS)* Assisted in interviewing and hiring for design team.* Scoped projects and assisted with sales with enterprise clients.

Led content strategy, visual and user experience design. Managed stakeholders, budgets, vendor relations and production.Clients included: • Public Library of Science• International Museum of Women• Tufts University• Harvard Divinity School• The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT• Brown University• National Association of Science Writers* Peabody Museum, Harvard University • Keshet

Responsible for user research and product design in the early and competitive fundraising platform domain. Series A funded startup.

* Managed one of the first coworking spaces in the United States that started what is now an international coworking movement. Citizen Space fostered open government, open media, and technology startups. It was a community-driven workspace and event space for entrepreneurs and startups.* Responsible for the physical space, community & membership events, finances, and outreach.* Planned and/or coordinated over 40 professional networking events.* Improved member acquisition, retention, and alumni relations. * Increased membership by 25% and grew organization to full capacity.

Designed and conducted installation supervision for multi-million dollar exhibits for history, science and art museums. Expert at client relationship building and project management.Clients included:• Amherst College • Maine Maritime Museum • Martha’s Vineyard Museum • Martin Guitar, Inc. • MIT Museum• National Museum of the United States Navy• Peabody Essex Museum • United States Naval Academy

Designed print, web, and exhibition solutions for airports, museums, and B2C housewares. Conducted multiple on site press checks, installation overviews, and photography shoots.

Exhibited and sold art and artifacts from Africa, Oceania, Asia, and the Americas. Responsible for research, client relations, organizing and running silent auctions and museum relations.