Took a career break in order to attend to some medical issues (thankfully now resolved) and travel to seek personal enrichment. Built community by launching an Artist's Way circle, meeting weekly with 9 creatives from all over the world.

DeviantArt is the world’s largest online art social network, with 65+ million users. It was acquired by Wix in 2017. I was embedded in 4 different cross-disciplinary product teams with different sets of PMs, UX Designers, FEDs. For 2 of these years I was the solo writer on a wide range of community- and monetization-focused products, including Subscriptions (Patreon competitor), checkout, notifications, and more. I crafted FTUE tooltips, modals, and far too many error messages and notifications in DA’s friendly, quirky voice for desktop, mobile web, and native app. Our teams took a data-centric approach and constantly monitored design and content choices through A/B testing to increase KPIs. I guided our team in choosing major product names and terminology, as well as spearheaded the efforts to create DeviantArt's first official content style guide. I also provided occasional assistance with our Knowledge Base articles, making sure they dovetailed seamlessly with the UX writing for maximum clarity. Additionally, when a second UX writer was added to our team, I helped onboard and provide mutual support for them.While operating independently as DA's writer, I was also privileged to be embedded within the Wix Writers Guild with 60 other talented professionals. This allowed me to have my finger on the pulse of all the different products happening throughout the Wix ecosystem. I was able to provide and benefit from peer editing and flow reviews. Being simultaneously in both DA and Wix gave me the unique opportunity to operate both as a solo writer in a start-up and as an enterprise writer in a larger, multi-national team.

Worked hand-in-hand with the CEO to research and present business and marketing strategies to top-level executives and the Business Development team. Created and edited digital content.

Yael Adventures is an official Birthright Israel operator that has sent thousands of American young adults on free, educational trips to Israel. I interviewed over 550 candidates to assess eligibility. High levels of empathy and customer service were used to discuss sensitive topics such as religious identity, political views, and physical and emotional health.

Performed UX research and design work using agile methodology in week-long sprints. During these sprints teams apply and utilize the full gamut of UX methodologies: user research (conducting user interviews, concept testing, affinity mapping, personas, journey mapping), creating wireframes and prototypes and subsequent usability testing, and rapidly iterating based on user feedback.Worked to create native app experiences for two Chicago startups: FitLocal (making fitness accessible by fostering social sports) and CharacTour (a patented personality-typing system based on TV and movies).

Working directly for the Alrov Group, I assisted with the design coordination and preparation of construction documents (demolition/construction, electrical, plumbing, RCP, AC) on behalf of Alrov (a luxury real estate group) for the renovation of the David Citadel Hotel (a 5-star, 385-room hotel in Jerusalem) and the building of luxury residential apartments. I coordinated between the Italian design firm of Piero Lissoni, Alrov employees, local consultants, and contractors. I created superposition plans to check for compatibility between consultants, adaptation of building documents to suit existing building circumstances, on-site visits. I created architectural drawings (furniture plans, FF&E) as-needed for Mamilla Hotel and other international Alrov properties in London, Paris, and Amsterdam.