TL;DR: I am a principle product designer based in Portland, Oregon. With over 25 years of experience, I have worked on a myriad of projects for a wide variety companies. I’ve designed for print, packaging, hardware, automotive, data visualization, and mobile apps.

Everything else:

I grew up in Portland, Oregon. I went to school for fine art, but quickly changed my major to Graphic Design. The story goes that I had a choice between an 8am Architecture elective, or a 9am Graphic Design class. I chose the later time and fell in love with design before the end of the first assignment.

I spent hours pouring over Illustrator and Photoshop guides, learning every nook and cranny of the software. I studied branding, packaging, poster, and every era of design history. After creating my first HTML portfolio site (mostly image maps, if I’m honest), a classmate showed me one of the first Flash websites (Sumocreative.com). I immediately bought the software and taught myself how to use it.

My first big role was at Intel as a designer on the Intel Web Tablet, an early predecessor to the iPad. I worked on a team of Human Factors Engineers (HFEs) on a usability team. My Flash skills were put to good use creating prototypes for testing. My illustration skills came in handy when designing instructional guides. I learned how to partner with engineers and to design within hardware constraints and became a key partner in many innovative additions to the product, including an MP3 player and a photo slideshow viewer. They actually told us not to work on the MP3 player (they weren’t going anywhere!). With a knowing manager’s go ahead, we continued our work and created a prototype. Our testers loved it and it became a huge feature.

After the big dot com bust of 2001, I found myself on the agency side. I worked with clients like Freightliner, Qualcomm and local brands on website and branding initiatives. I learned to work with engineering and project management partners on tight timelines and most importantly to collaborate with clients.

I returned to product design at McAfee, where I developed early expertise in data visualization. I setup a PC in my house as a router and used McAfee firewall software to control traffic in order to learn how the software really worked. Since then, I’ve always found inventive ways to get into the user’s head and develop a deep understanding of the technology. 20 years later, that skill has been essential in my recent work with AI.

I continued my data visualization work at Webtrends and Postano (now Spinklr). As a Creative Director I worked with designers and engineers to create analytics dashboards and visualizations for brands like State Farm, Adidas, and Nike among many others. In the early days of social media, we created beautiful, context and insight-rich data visualizations for huge campaigns.

After a brief stint at Nike, leading UX for their visual assortment planning tool, I went to Amazon. In my role as a product designer for Amazon’s logistics group, I had the opportunity to work on Locker, Locker+, and Amazon returns products. If you’ve ever returned an Amazon purchase at a Whole Foods, without the need for a box or label, you’ve seen my favorite project in action. I worked with my product management and engineering partners, as well as our fulfillment partners, I helped build a magical experience that delights users worldwide. I was also able to work on the driver experience for Amazon’s Rivian Electric delivery vans.

From Amazon, I shifted to the digital health space. At Hinge Health, I helped launch their first hardware product, Enso. I learned about FDA regulated design, bluetooth connections, and creating confidence for users in pain applying electrical stimulus to their body. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to work on nearly every part of the product. Most recently, I’ve been leading design for AI for our care team members.

When I’m not designing, I am running, working on my classic 1964 Buick Skylark to drag race and autocross it, or spending time with my family of 8 (including two dogs).