About
I'm a designer, researcher, strategist and educator. I tackle complex problems through customer and business strategy at Fjord, Accenture Federal Studio.
In a past life, I held various roles in product management that shape my frames of reference in present day. My specialty lies in developing process improvements and business transformation through research and discovery, facilitation, visioning, business value and stakeholder alignment.
I'm a proud alumna turned educator at the University of Maryland, College Park, College of Information Studies. I teach undergraduate courses on topics that include effective teams and teamwork and user context and research.
Work Experience
I’m a lecturer who teaches courses on effective teams and teamwork and user context and research. Additionally, I oversee both undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants.
Previously, I held a role as a Graduate Student Instructor during my time in graduate school. I was the main/sole Instructor on record and taught Introduction to Information Science.
Supporting Accenture Federal Studio through planning, designing and implementing research, workshops and design processes to address customer needs and increase business value.
Additional roles:
• Co-leading a design outreach and awareness pilot to HBCU's and minority student-run organizations as part of the studio's DEIA FY22 initiative
• Lead virtual facilitator for DC studio; creating and moderating workshops to senior stakeholders on best practices for virtual facilitation
On the Creative User Experience team of ~12, I was the primary UX Research lead who provided design research strategies for various clients.
This included designing, implementing and synthesizing research studies to support a 5-year roadmap on how to improve the user experience for limited-income customers. The outcome is a propensity model questionnaire to guide customers to the appropriate and available funding to help pay their utility bills.
Led customer experience initatives for the Supplier Performance Management team to support IT leadership and Finance Business Partners through requirements gathering, communication templates, playbooks and metrics reporting.
Conducted a 6-month graduate capstone project in partnership with Gitlab's Verify team; researched, designed and prototyped a solution to improve the onboarding experience for GitLab's CI/CD product.
Partnered with the Chief Product Officer and Engineering team to lead research and design efforts for the rebrand of SBA’s single sign-on application, SBA Connect. Gathered stakeholder requirements, conducted usability testing, enhanced SBA's design system and produced interactive prototyping.
Learn more about the internship program here: vsfs.state.gov/about
(Contractor under NCI)
Product Owner for biotechnology team of engineers, researchers, designers, product managers and scientists; maintained and groomed backlog of a proprietary product roadmap tool for 250+ active projects generating $200M monthly revenue.
Facilitator and translator between development and creative team for go-live changes of digital web services. Additionally, I facilitated the change-advisory board, and supported sprint planning for a distributed scrum team.
Projects
As a student at Useful School's Introduction to Product Design program, I reimagined a learning management system that incorporates feedback between students and the educator.
Learn more about Useful School here: usefulschool.com/classes/beginn…
Disclaimer - this project is not affiliated with the University of Maryland or Canvas.
Education
Specialization in User Experience.
Relevant courses: user research, usability testing, visual design, design-thinking, prototyping, design methods and human-computer interaction.
Certifications
Volunteering
Recruit, onboard, and co-develop curriculums for UX and UI courses. Occasionally I teach UX Fundamentals.
Student Competition Co-Chair Committee Member for inaugural student design competition for AIGA50.
Provided mentorship to an emerging UX professional. By end of the mentorship program, mentee received offer and started first full-time UX role.
Co-led a small group of underrepresented high-school students to develop websites for non-profit organizations during a 8-week program. My work included hosting daily lectures on design-thinking and supporting client-student relationship building.
The students produced MVP prototypes for websites and mobile applications at the conclusion of the program.
Awards
Recipient reflects academic excellence as a Master of Information Management student at the University of Maryland, College Park School of Information Studies.
Features
During graduate school, I wrote an article designed for students who do NOT complete internships. It was prompted as an encouragement, where I wrote about my "alternative" experience, describing how I created my own opportunities as a design profession.
The medium post was well received and ultimately selected as a feature in Prototypr's medium page.