ABOUT ME
I was a mathlete in middle school--a true nerd from my earliest days. That time spent on problem sets and competitions taught me problem-solving with a method and toolkit. Where there were multiple ways to get to the answer, the goal was to find the most efficient path.
I went on to get an education in the liberal arts, where I added skills in communication, expression, and creativity. For years I balanced my interest in the sciences and arts, working as a psychology textbook editor.
Then I stumbled on UX. Where those math problems were abstract, with limited practical applications, and where scholarly books had limited audiences, real-world digital design touches potential billions of people. UX at its finest is a science and an art, and further, a way to connect people with ideas. Now, I utilize my passion for constant learning, improving, and connecting to help make peoples’ experiences more intuitive and joyful.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
ABOUT MY WORK
I'm a mixed-methods UX researcher and strategist with a background in human-computer interaction and psychology. I've been in the UX practitioner space 8+years and also bring four years of experience in academic psychology and research methods pedagogy. I’ve leveraged a wide range of research methodologies to understand users across behavioral and attitudinal planes, using those insights to drive product innovation in partnership with stakeholders. My career has afforded me the opportunity to work as a solo or small-team UX practitioner, often in leadership and strategy roles, as well as within larger and more specialized UX teams, often as a staff researcher working independently on end-to-end studies from planning through delivery. Throughout, I've worked on a variety of b2b and b2c products both software and hardware, across all stages of development and digital platforms, with a particular focus on big, cutting-edge solutions to wicked problems. I have a special place in my heart for data-driven and AI products, having recently worked on an e2e cloud machine learning platform-as-a-service and an AI-backed touchless biometric payment system.
But that brief elevator pitch doesn’t really tell you about the heart of my work. To me, research is about not only tackling the known unknowns surrounding the things we make, but plumbing the depths for unknown unknowns. It’s about hearing beyond what users say and do, through their subtle confusions and momentary pauses, into their motivations and underlying needs. It’s about watching in the wings like a backstage crew member at feature launches, being proud of having done my part in ensuring a smooth experience. Research is the pursuit of learning on my part crossed with the commitment to helping others through my work. It is essential to business, and to humanity.
RESUME
Experience
Senior UX Researcher
Meta, Seattle
May 2025–Mar 2026
Spun up a research practice in a new technical domain: internal code configuration products and safe code change processes for developers, addressing unmet technical needs and business risks
Balanced traditional research planning and implementation/advocacy in partnership with cross functional network with AI-assisted script writing, session summarizing, quote finding, sentiment analysis, and insights formatting, and further experiments in AI moderation, data pulling, dashboard creation, quantitative triangulation
Established near and far term roadmaps for future UXR and joint studies, and templates for stakeholder collaboration. Foundational studies formed the basis for a new ground-level understanding specific to a burgeoning technical area, while tactical studies unblocked heritage design uncertainties, answered stakeholder questions, and drove planning for user-friendly platform unification
Senior UX Researcher (contract)
Salesforce, Seattle
Feb 2025–May 2025
Led UX journey mapping and comparative review across Salesforce native data products and newly acquired OWN data security products through cross-platform Jobs to be Done (JTBD) writing for main user roles at multiple altitudes, including a first stage research literature review and drafting jobs, second stage stakeholder interviews and jobs editing, planning a third stage quantitative survey and further editing, and setting up for a fourth stage implementation and sharing
Creating durable, user- and goal-oriented JTBD across the entire suite of OWN data security and Salesforce native data products fostered understanding overlaps, gaps, and misalignments across OWN and Salesforce products, informed how to fill gaps and reduce redundancies, streamline and package products as a single platform, overall seamlessly bringing the OWN acquisition into Salesforce
UX Researcher II
Microsoft, greater Seattle
Feb 2022–May 2024
Created and drove research program for key verticals in Azure AI Platform product across all lifecycle stages
using different methodologies, partnering with product teams and cross-platform researchers, establishing the
broad direction of designs and tracking incremental changes, with agile and innovative reporting
UX Researcher II (contract)
Facebook Reality Labs, Seattle
Mar 2021–Jan 2022
User-centered human factors and anthropomorphic mixed-methods research, remote and in-lab, for confidential novel hardware AR form factors in early development; stakeholder relationship-building and research delivery/discussions; vendor researcher management; secondary data analysis and desk research
UX Researcher (contract)
Microsoft, greater Seattle
Jun 2019–Jan 2021
Generative problem-finding and evaluative problem-solving research partnering with dozens of product teams for a leading cloud-based AI machine learning platform across all lifecycle stages; study presentations and publications; UX advocacy and stakeholder education/coaching; honing internal team UXR processes
Lead UX Research Consultant (capstone)
University of California, Irvine and Technolutions, remote
Mar 2020–Sept 2020
Research strategy and implementation leading a 5-person team for a customized university admissions portal and underlying vendor technology; planning short- and long-term roadmap of changes for developer team
Data Collection Researcher II (contract)
Amazon, Seattle
Feb 2019–Jun 2019
UX recruiting and participant management, large-volume data analysis and reporting, mobile lab operations and logistics, communications strategy, user research and targeting, and usability and heuristic consulting for an innovative confidential deep learning project iterating on a hardware-software prototype design
UX Researcher
A+E Networks, NYC
Jun 2018–Dec 2018
Founded qualitative and quantitative UX research practices for 2 video streaming apps using suite of new tools; established usability lab and testing protocol; added or redesigned features of 2 apps across 5 platforms; designed 2 entire apps for 1 new platform; codified team UX process; presented demos to stakeholders
Co-founder and UX Lead
LocalVote, NYC
May 2018–Nov 2018
All things strategy and UX for a seed-stage startup to increase voter turnout in local elections through an app that curates events and news; led user research and synthesis, rapidly prototyped hi-fi design, led usability testing, iterated on design and managed developer handoff; facilitated user growth and funding initiatives
UX Researcher/Designer
Young Audiences New York, NYC
Mar 2018–Apr 2018
Designed responsive web and mobile site for digital media students, teachers, and mentors to upload artwork of varying formats, view and share portfolios, conduct online critiques, browse and socially share work, log in and control privacy; specialized in UX research and usability testing; 3 iterations, hi-fi prototype, handover
Education
Master of Human-Computer Interaction and Design
University of California, Irvine
Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Science, Department of Informatics (low-residency program)
Focus in user research and usability
User Experience Research and Design Specialization Certificate
University of Michigan (via Coursera)
Human-Computer Interaction for User Experience Design Certificate
Massachusetts Institute of Technology CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory)
Post-Graduate Research Fellowship
École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
Bachelor of Arts
Kalamazoo College
Double major; graduated cum laude; Dean’s List; merit scholarships; senior thesis honors
Skills
UX research: Interviewing, ethnographic study, contextual inquiry, focus groups, diary studies, surveys, card sorting, eye tracking, comparative/competitive analysis, heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthroughs, concept testing, usability testing, benchmarking, A/B testing, tree testing, participatory design, literature review, meta-analysis, RITE, Tenets & traps, product reaction cards, System Usability Scale, HEART framework, analyzing customer feedback, data analysis, data visualization; planning, recruiting, moderating, communicating, documenting, teaching UXR
UX process: affinity mapping, feature prioritization, user archetypes, personas, segmenting, journey mapping, task/user flows, sitemaps, wireframing, prototyping; hypothesis-driven framework, jobs to be done, Moneyball, business model canvas, scrum, agile, lean, sprint planning, project planning, iterative UX
UX tools: UserTesting/UserZoom, Optimal Workshop, Qualtrics, Mural, Miro, Respondent, User Interviews, DScout, Dovetail, Lookback, NotebookLM, Outset; Figma
Languages: advanced French (CEFR C1–2 certified), intermediate Chinese, beginning German
Education
Activities
Wikipedian, Wikipedia (copyediting, fact-checking, article flagging, translation)
Dragon boat racing
Vipassana meditation
Creative writing
Awards
Best Prototype, UX Mini Hackathon for Boostmyschool
Social Impact Award, Startup Weekend