A Brief Bio:
I’ve been a designer for seven years and have worked professionally for twelve. in 2019 I started as a graduate student at CMU’s School of Design and graduated in 2022 with an MA and MDes in Design.
I went back to school and to expand the fidelity of my design skills and to elevate my thinking. Today, I’m a designer who can thrive within complexities and can call upon or invent advanced strategies for any challenge. Most importantly, going back to school reminded me how exciting it can be to expand your understanding and walk directly challenge what you know.
See more of my work on Medium.
I’m currently looking for roles related to:
- Service design
- Strategic design
- Experience design
- Futuring/Visioning
My Background:
For better or for worse, I didn’t start my career as a design. After an undergrad at UC Berkeley, I was a writer and paralegal, with plans to attend law schools and to become a lawyer. Looking back, I’m grateful for the experience, the writing taught me empathy, creativity, and story-telling while law made me practice logic and analysis. While I didn’t know it at the time, this combination of creativity and analytical thinking would make me a much better designer than lawyer.
Even in the strategies and work I do today, I rely on a multi-faceted approach, leveraging the best parts of out-of-the-box thinking and real-world practicality.
My Teamwork:
Good design always means good collaboration. When working with client stakeholders or long-term teammates, I prioritize honest and supportive communication and appreciate getting sincere critiques. I like to stay in a “yes and…” mindset, listening and building off ideas rather instead of shutting them down. I learn by doing and use prototyping to de-risk and grow my understanding quickly. While I’m always excited to learn new methods, I gravitate towards frameworks that prioritize sense-making and focus on outcomes. For me, being part of a team is an opportunity to make something meaningful, but also to learn, teach, and make connections.
My Thoughts on Design:
In my experience, the best design always communicates and connects. With strong communication, design is cross-functional and a resource to everyone. When design makes connections it unlocks business opportunities that can combine technology and people. By leveraging these two features, design can facilitate an environment of continuous improvement.
My Weekends and Free Time:
I love to read! Design books yes, but also lots of sci-fi and speculative fiction. I love cooking for friends and cramming people into tiny kitchens or small living rooms for dinners. Most weekends you can find me riding bikes, building semi-stable furniture, and overwatering my plants.