I am creative and insightful, multidisciplinary designer who leverages knowledge of human-computer interaction, design-thinking and system thinking principles, and accessibility best practices to develop beautiful and functional designs that delight the user.
Fun fact: Prior to being an award-winning product design lead and speaker, I was an Oscar-winning fashion designer who supported the development of super hero costumes for Marvel. Today, I apply my in deepth knowledge of form and function from fasion and costume into my work with organizations such as Veterans Affairs Department, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services Department.
Career Highlights
Approach Matters (Coforma) 2023
How we work is just as important as what we create. Recognized for demonstrating an exemplary, thoughtful, inclusive, and ethical approach to their work at each step of the way.
For All (Coforma) 2022
Inclusivity and accessibility are of the utmost importance to our culture. Through an empowering mindset and inclusive practices to embrace diverse solutions and approaches. Everyday efforts help make our work truly impactful for all.
Program of the Year (Health+) 2022
Coforma was granted the Program of the Year award for Health+ Lyme cycle. I developed the brand identity, including illustration style that became part of the Health+ branding for all programs going forward, and the full reports visual design.
Alumni Spotlight (Drexel University) 2021
I graduated from Drexel University in 2013 with a MS in Fashion Design. Since graduating I have since become an Alumni Spotlight for my achievements within the Fashion, Costume and Digital Services Industries.
My Experience
Coforma, Washington, DC (remote from Phoenix, AZ)
Senior Product Designer, February 2019 - PRESENT
Create functional, user-friendly design solutions for clients, ensuring the timely delivery of iterative designs to agile development teams. Meet with product managers to strategize and scope projects and run research interviews with end users, SMEs, and facilitate usability testing. Prepare various planning and mapping resources along with prototypes and other design assets. Consult with engineering to understand limitations at the outset of a project and discuss visible and invisible aspects of designs as the project progresses. Develop mobile-first solutions and design across multiple breakpoints for adaptive designs. Communicate with stakeholders, consumers, and SMEs to understand project needs and identify improvement opportunities. Conduct design critiques, audits, and heuristic analysis.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, QPP (Oct 2024 – Present): Design Systems Design Lead. Managed a group of Senior Designers within the HCD team while working closely with multiple development teams.
Developed planned and scoped a roadmap for a program wide redesign across over 10 applications to increase a11y and brand identity.
Coached senior designers within each application team to better understand how to adopt and implement the new design system.
While running internal research I identified pain points within development that resulted in reducing development time by over 65%.
Initiated internal processes across HCD and development teams to improve cross functional collaboration and early communication to increase sprint velocity by 30%.
Department of Homeland Security, HSIN (Nov 2023 – Aug 2024): Senior Product Designer. Provided product UX/UI design leadership for research and marketing teams.
Templatized and provided guidance for marketing annual needs.
Built a relationship with stakeholders and negotiated for end user needs.
Optimized user journeys to improve end users experience while adhering to section 508 and ATO guidelines.
Veterans Administration, VA.gov (Jan 2023 – Nov 2023): Product Designer III. Provided design leadership for content, accessibility, and information architecture. Ran a11y checks and QA reviews. Identified cognitive bias; implemented trauma-informed design patterns.
Facilitated a workshop on designer/developer communication strategies.
Shifted the emphasis from live product QA audits to in-development design reviews, emphasizing a11y early in the development process.
Mapped user journeys to improve Veterans’ benefit application experience.
Identified critical errors that resulted in an increase of 175% successful submissions.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, MBR (Jun 2022 – Jan 2023): Initiated a full rebrand. Chose common industry colors and created a logo, favicon, and site illustration style. Developed interchangeable core layouts and optimized copy designs. Verified feasibility by describing design ideas and wireframes to engineers. Collaborated with the research team to adapt designs according to usability research.
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (May 2021 – Jul 2021): Collaborated with 2 other designers to create a collective but expansive brand for OASH and HHS; developed logo, selected color palette and typography, and provided guidance on images and inclusivity.
General Services Administration, Challenge.Gov (Jul 2021 – Jan 2022): Planned and facilitated roadmapping, feature prioritization workshops. Within a lean team I took over product management within the project team, lead planning, product scoping, scrum, and internal meetings.
Health and Human Services, Health+ Lyme (Jul 2020 – May 2021): Developed brand identity, including an illustration style that was adopted as a part of the Health+ branding. Used Adobe Illustrator for illustration style, InDesign for layouts, and Figma for infographics and other visual tools.
Let’s work together
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