I’m a human-centered designer for care organizations.
Researcher, strategist, designer of experiences, and a fan of anyone building a healthier future for others.
Selected work
Client names withheldI am open to freelance projects. If your team needs research, strategy or service design, say hello.
Expertise
- Human-centered design
- Qualitative and quantitative research
- Journey maps and service blueprints
- New products, services and business models
- Innovation playbooks and training
- Innovation governance and operating models
- 0-to-1 product strategy
- MVP scoping and launch planning
- Creative direction
Leadership
Where I have been and where I am going as a leader.
Leading teams has taught me what great work needs. I’m ready for the influence to build that into a whole practice.
Individual contributor
Does the work and owns the quality of it.
Roles I have heldEducator, curriculum designer and design researcher.
Team and engagement lead
Sets the vision, manages scope, ensures quality, provides expertise, and coaches and manages performance.
NowI manage teams of 3-6 people for rotating client engagements that include designers, researchers, product managers and engineers.
Function or practice leader
Owns a whole discipline: its strategy, its budget, its practices and the managers who run it.
Where I’m headedI got a first taste at a startup nonprofit, where I had a say in budget, headcount and staffing. In my current role, those decisions sit above me.
Pro bono work
Past projectsCauses close to my heart where I’ve offered my skills.
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Childhood literacy in Uganda
WithRestore Primary School, Pangea Publishing
I spent a year in rural Uganda as the on-the-ground director of a primary school, running day-to-day operations and planning. With local school leaders, I co-designed a teacher evaluation system and launched a phonics-based reading program that lifted literacy rates 62% in its first trimester. We also built a children’s library of 5,000+ books. The next question stuck with me: where do children find books they love once the library runs out? For my graduate capstone, I researched how more children in Uganda could get books they want to read. I surveyed 100+ parents in Gulu and Kampala, ran a focus group with village elders, and interviewed authors, editors and publishers in Uganda and the U.S. Then I worked with the publisher’s team to turn what we heard into ideas for growing their model.
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Workforce and housing program in the Bay Area
WithA Bay Area nonprofit and local rapid rehousing providers
We designed a regional workforce program for people moving out of homelessness, pairing housing with paid training and financial support. We ran two rounds of research with people currently experiencing insecure housing and unemployment, using trauma-informed methods and co-design. What we heard changed the plan: job training needed to be specific and certifiable. Income could not wait until after training, so a pay-scaled apprenticeship stage was added to the overall model.
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Design thinking training for women’s empowerment programs
WithAjila Foundation, Imagine Her
I design curriculum and lead workshops on design thinking for several women’s empowerment organizations. As an educator at heart, I love sharing what I know and teaching women to use human-centered design to change their own circumstances, or someone else’s.
I am open to pro bono projects in the future. If your cause could use research, strategy or design, say hello.
A little bit more about me
- Education
- M.S. Strategic Design and Management, Parsons School of Design, 2021
B.A. Early Childhood Education, University of St. Thomas, 2013 - Certifications
- Certified Claude Associate – Foundations (CCAO-F)
Issued by Anthropic, October 2026
I started out as a teacher in Houston, spent a gap year in Uganda co-designing ways to increase childhood literacy, and came home with a dog named Posho and a lasting belief that good work starts with listening. That belief took me from classrooms and nonprofit program-building into design and innovation consulting.
Today I’m a Design Strategy Manager at Deloitte Digital, leading design, research and strategy teams for life sciences and healthcare clients. I use interviews, surveys and data to learn what patients and providers really need, turn it into product and experience decisions, and bring teams together to take fuzzy problems all the way to launch, even through the risk, compliance and trade-offs of highly regulated work. Lately I’m most curious about where product innovation meets responsible AI.
By day I help teams build care that works for real people. Every other waking moment I’m in Chicago with my husband, son and Posho in a 100-year-old bungalow, enjoying the beautiful family and community around me.
Writing
Published perspectivesRethinking innovation for a new era
Generative AI, economic turbulence and shifting customer demands are changing how companies innovate. The piece lays out four models (Lab, Foundry, Bridge and Venture) that organizations can use alone or together, and how to choose.
My role: contributing writer, with Deloitte Digital leaders.