/ About Me

As leader in user experience with a history of over two decades, I specialize in guiding teams to craft digital products that redefine and activate business strategies. I practice a user-centered design method guided by curiosity and empathy that revolves around not just delivering a solution, but a dynamic experience with an eye towards the aesthetic. Having filled many different roles across the front end spectrum, I am able to consider and approach a problem through the lenses of various disciplines. My leadership style is characterized by an ability to understand and build trust with the teams I work with, enabling me to guide stakeholders through a fully collaborative process. Employing hands-on direction and tight communication, I take great satisfaction in working to choreograph initiatives to successful outcomes.

My passion for design has deep roots, stemming from childhood when I found joy in both the creative and the analytical. I loved science, art, and drawing, often spending hours drawing animals, assembling models, and gazing over anatomy books. This fascination naturally evolved into design, where I could blend logic and organization with creativity. Over time, my interests converged in the world of UX, where the complexity, science and art of the human being intersects with the languages of design and code in creating products and experiences.

I brand myself as a full-stack UX designer because of the diverse skills I’ve cultivated throughout my career. From user research to front-end development , I’ve embraced every facet of the design and front-end build process. Starting my career as a designer, it was fairly commonplace to be responsible for designing interfaces as well as building all of the html before handing off to the development teams, and so I became very adept at producing html in the early days. As well, we were working with other technologies, doing things like coding cd-rom apps using Lingo in Director, and ActionScript in Flash.

As my career progressed, the roles I took on became more specialized. I’ve functioned as a designer for various product companies, worked in corporate institutions within the tech team, and as a consultant in agency environments. Eventually my career leading me to more pure UX roles where I was more focused on the leading discovery and research initiatives, producing high level design to be consumed by the UI designers who produced the final UI. In more recent roles, those UX and UI design roles have again converged, reigniting my interest in hands-on UI design, and as of late, I am seeking to return to my full-stack foundations in some capacity or another, enjoying the challenges that coding presents. My belief is that UX, design, and development roles are very closely intertwined, working to solve a common problem on different levels, and that for the best outcome these disciplines must be aligned, and work very closely. By maintaining my unique skill set, if I myself am not doing all the work — I can at the very least effectively communicate, empathize with, and build trust with my peers to better collaborate on the problem. I take a lot of pride, and see a lot of value in having this broad skill set.

Thoughtful leadership and teamwork are central to my approach. I believe that the key to successful product teams lies in clear communication, empathy, and collaboration with all the stakeholders involved. My approach to leadership emphasizes humility, active listening, building trust, accountability, and the ability to see things from perspectives other than my own. I find deep satisfaction in blending ideas and working alongside others to create something much greater than the sum of its parts.

Outside of my career, the spirit of curiosity and problem solving continues, I enjoy underwater exploring of tropical seas, and I am a certified scuba divemaster and instructor. I like to frequent my home gym, and train Thai boxing. I love working with my hands — experimenting with woodworking and home improvement projects, creating a home for my family.