Well Hello! I love making things, breaking things and making them better.

I love experimenting, understanding and creating experiences that connect.  

 

Design Research Leader | Consumer Insights Strategist | Storyteller and Happiness Designer

Creative leader and strategic storyteller with 15+ years of experience bringing complex ideas to life through emotionally resonant, insight-led narratives. Adept at crafting big-picture messaging frameworks while obsessing over the nuance of every word. I merge editorial clarity with conceptual boldness, humor and heart. Delivering powerful content across digital, print, social, and video. With deep roots in user research, design strategy and brand management,  I build create connections that informs and inspires. Equal parts writer, message architect, and narrative coach—I love helping brands speak with purpose, punch, and originality.

 

Core Capabilities 

• Research Practice Development: Qualitative & quantitative methods, scalable frameworks, team mentorship

• Audience Intelligence: Ethnography, behavioral research, segmentation, and fandom studies

• Discovery & Usability Research: Mobile, web, and physical touchpoint testing

• Insight Translation: Turning complex findings into actionable product and design recommendations

• Stakeholder Collaboration: Partnering with product, engineering, and business leaders to ground decisions in customer truth

• Research Operations: Surveys, feedback loops, passive/active data collection, synthesis at scale

 

Lead UX Research & Experience Strategy
Advancing Educational Research and Development Fund (AERDF) – Assessments for Good
May 2025 – Present

• Built comprehensive UX research program from initial framework to implementation, focusing on cognitive, affective, and behavioral research for kids aged 8-14

• Established research methodologies and scalable processes to inform learning tool design, driving clarity and emotional connection across student, teacher, and parent audiences

• Translated complex research findings into compelling, audience-first narratives that shaped product strategy and design direction

• Utilized frameworks like gamified and playful assessment to reach students (consumers) in a more emotionally resonant way. 

• Created research templates, guidelines, and insight frameworks adopted across cross-functional teams 

• Taught and trained non-design colleagues in qual and quant research methodologies that helped build a scalable, repeatable research practice to establish higher quality data baselines for measurement 

 

Lead Design Strategy – UX, CX & Human-Centered Design
Booz Allen Hamilton
Sept 2022 – May 2025

• Led discovery research and usability testing across multiple government digital transformation initiatives, shaping national policy tools and services used by millions of US citizens

• Designed and conducted consumer research and developed experience narratives for high-stakes user groups including Veterans, USDA constituents, and Public Health Workers

• Collaborated with product managers, designers, and engineers to translate user insights into functioning prototypes with rapid turnaround

• Established internal research best practices and facilitated learning programs on design strategy and empathic research methods 

• Built scalable feedback mechanisms and research operations for ongoing product iteration

​

Savannah College of Art & Design: Professor of Design, Research and Business Innovation
August 2015 – Present
Professor of design focused on brand storytelling, design thinking, service innovation, and idea visualization frameworks.

Mentored graduate students on messaging strategy, campaign development, and storytelling for design impact.
Developed interdisciplinary courses focused on content, brand design, strategy and user-centered stories

• Service Design: A systemic perspective (MFA, MBI) 

• Design Innovation and Marketing Strategies (MFA, MBI) 

• Visualizing Services: Storyboarding, Maps and Models (MFA, MBI)

• Drawing for Design Thinking (BFA, MA and MFA)    

• Creative Business Leadership (MBI)

• Design Innovation and Marketing (MA and MFA)

 

Lead UX Research & Design Strategy
Mural (Remote SaaS Collaboration Platform)
Feb 2021 – July 2022

• Defined and scaled research practice for a fast-growing remote collaboration platform serving educators and enterprise users

• Led discovery research, usability testing, and audience segmentation studies that directly informed product roadmap decisions

• Managed both passive and active data collection at scale, synthesizing insights into clear recommendations for design and product teams

• Created content frameworks, tone guides, and onboarding flows grounded in user research and behavioral insights

• Supported narrative development for new product launches through rapid ethnographic sprints​

 

Senior Experience Researcher & Design Strategist
Cartoon Network – Digital Learning & Innovation
Dec 2015 – Nov 2021

• Led audience research and experience strategy for digital platforms targeting kids ages 4–14, conducting ethnographic studies of young media consumers and their families

• Established research methods for voice-first and AI-powered kids products, balancing innovation with developmental appropriateness

• Collaborated with MIT and AWS on STEM learning experiences, conducting user studies that prioritized emotional resonance and inclusivity

• Managed research across multiple brand properties, creating design guidelines and audience insights frameworks

• Developed The Powerpuff Girls internship program, mentoring young women and conducting audience research on Gen Z media consumption

Additional Experience
Research roles at Thrive, Artefact, frog, and as an independent children's experience designer. Clients included Fisher-Price, Martha Stewart Kids, BBC, and NY Comic Con. Work ranged from educational toy development to complex healthcare and tech research, with particular focus on youth audiences and family dynamics.
 

Tools & Platforms
Figma • Mural • Miro • Notion • Adobe Creative Suite • Airtable • GenAI Ideation Tools • MS Office

 

Education

Savannah College of Art and Design

• BFA Industrial Design + Documentary Photography 

• MFA Design Management + Strategy

​

Additional Research Trainings

- Trauma informed interview techniques

- K-12 interview safety protocols 

- Resaerch AI workflows / UXR Agent 

-