I’m a user experience manager and strategist with strong expertise in human-centered design methods and usability.
For over 15 years, I have applied design within constraints, usually a blend of problems, people, and technology. Through a design thinking process, I surface insight that opens up better ways to reachintended audiences, guiding teams as they convert research into products. As an information science professional, I also bring a strong point-of-view about how to give meaningful structure to complex data and content.
I lead teams from evidence to innovation.
Clients and employers
As a design strategist, I’ve led product research and design for clients and employers like Cisco Systems, Intel, Nike, Stanford University, and WebMD Health Services. Before this, I worked in public libraries, launching award-winning statewide and national digital initiatives for shared services–one lasting a decade, the other still running strong. I spent a year as a Design Impact design fellow in India, helping Quest Alliance find ways to scale their life skills partner program, aimed at helping underserved youth become more employable and find a career path. More recently, I managed user experience at Jama Software, leading a team that covered design research, content strategy, prototyping and concept development, and product design within Agile software teams.
Currently, I’m the director of user experience at Contrast Security, where I lead a large and growing team of user experience designers, product designers, and content writers. We champion design thinking and partner closely with business and technical leadership to drive the strategy and direction of complex application security products.
In my career, I’ve launched software products that connect people to information and new ways to learn, support silicon and biomedical research and development, make people healthier through personalized behavior-change, connect teams across the world as they develop and analyze complex products for regulated industries, and keep software safe from attacks. I choose mission-driven work that demands sustainable design.
Building design teams
My teams cover the full range of user experience needs: user research, design concepts, prototypes, wireframes, content strategy, pixel-perfect interaction design, usability testing, and product documentation. I prefer generalists who bring:
- A diversity of thought and interests
- Strong empathy
- Both passion and humility
- A desire to learn through work and critique
- An ability to understand complex products from bottom to top, from data to surface
- A range of user experience skills that give the team healthy overlap and flexibility
- One area where they can go deep and become our resident expert and teacher