Resume

Work Experience

The Mom Project June 2021-February 2024

Sr. Director of Product Design Sept 2023-February 2024
Director of Product Design June 2021-Sept 2023

Led a team of product designers, UX researchers, content designers and CX. Hired and built a team from 0 to 10 over 1 year. Created a career ladder, defined vision and principles, design processes, and team touchpoints which included critiques, feedback, knowledge sharing and bonding. Coached and mentored my team. Drove the creation and implementation of a complete design system (Momentum) as part of a larger rebrand and in close partnership with engineering. Led the UX strategy and execution of all iterations of the core product as well as a 0 to 1 effort, SelfMade. Introduced user-centered design thinking across all product work. Worked with Customer Advisory Board to gather feedback and create a streamlined product portfolio.

Upwork (formerly oDesk) January 2013–May 2021

Director of Product Design Feb 2020–May 2021
Sr. Manager, Design Feb 2019–Feb 2020
Senior Product Designer Jul 2017–Feb 2019
Interaction Designer Apr 2014–Jul 2017
Associate Interaction Designer Jan 2013–Apr 2014

Led a team of 4-5 product designers to create end-to-end user experiences focused on enabling the core of Upwork’s two-sided marketplace: talent and clients finding relevant opportunities and connecting with each other. Hired and built a team from 0 to 5 designers over the course of two years. Defined the UX strategy and vision for the matching space. Prioritized work and guided my team to create user experiences that focused on the user and solved for clear business and user success metrics. Coached and mentored my team. Passionate D&I advocate as a lead of the Upwork Women’s Employee Resource Group and co-chair of the 2019 Upwork Women’s Summit.

As an IC designer, responsible for user research, design, prototyping and execution of user flows for different areas of the product, including client and freelancer onboarding, the job post, profile, paid plans, and marketplace search experiences. Created the UX team’s first standardized user research and usability testing process. Researched, developed and evangelized new personas across the company.

Carnegie Mellon University and HP January–August 2012

MHCI Capstone Project, Project and UX Lead

Project and UX Lead for an 8-month project researching, designing, and prototyping a mobile product that discovers the intersection between digital and physical for social expressions; responsible for prioritizing and facilitating work, driving the research and design strategy for the project, determining, gathering, and compiling user research, producing wireframes and prototypes, communicating with the client and faculty, defining content and structure of final spring and summer reports

Independent Museum Consulting Research:

Independent research, exhibition preparation work, and cataloging of artifacts
Tudor Place Historic House and Garden, Washington, DC. Summer 2010
Norwalk Historical Society, Norwalk, CT. Spring 2010
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK. Spring 2009

Education

Masters Human Computer Interaction August 2012
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

MSc Material and Visual Cultures of the Past May 2009
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Dissertation: Social Impact of Hollywood Film Industry on WWII British Society and Culture

BA History and Classics, cum laude May 2007
Davidson College, Davidson, NC

Skills

Design Leadership

  • Product vision

  • Design strategy

People Management

  • Attract & retain diverse talent

  • Career frameworks

  • Build team culture

Research & Design

  • Design Thinking

  • Design Systems

  • Design Principles

  • Critique

  • Contextual Inquiry

  • Heuristic Evaluation

  • Usability Testing

  • Competitive Analysis

  • Prototyping

  • Storyboarding

  • Wireframing

  • Workflows

Independent Research & Grants

National Science Foundation Research Grant

Arlington, VA; Summer 2005 Awarded full grant.

Independent Research at the Athienou Archaeological Project in Cyprus

References upon request