Resume

Department of Veterans Affairs

Staff Product Designer, Information Architecture (IA) Lead
VA.gov, Health Portfolio
Contractor: Ad Hoc LLC / Washington, D.C. (remote)
Jul. 2023-present

  • Collaborate with a broad landscape of design leads and clinicians to shape the north-star strategy of a multi-year phased build-out of the VA’s patient-facing health portal.

  • Led end-to-end design of a mobile-first secondary navigation component for the health portal that led to 6-fold increase in mobile engagement.

  • Scout out and solution around unidentified problems in the holistic health experience: such as inconsistent design components between tools, access issues, incorrect alerts.

  • Mentor and coach other designers, leading efforts to support delivery and team development, and fostering a culture of feedback and attention to craft.

Senior Information Architect
VA.gov, Design systems & Platform governance team
Contractor: Ad Hoc LLC / Washington, D.C. (remote)
Oct. 2022-Jul. 2023

  • Uphold design system standards by conducting design reviews and auditing product/feature release cycles for 50+ teams building on VA.gov and the VA’s mobile app prior to product launches. 

  • Managed a strategic initiative to reduce 100+ confusing experience standards used to evaluate whether products are ready for launch down to 23, revolutionizing our ability to report meaningful metrics about the product health of VA.gov.

International Trade Administration

UX Designer & Researcher
Express Leads pilot program
Contractor: GovWizely / Washington, D.C. (remote)
2019-2022

 

  • Co-managed a pilot program that aimed to get verified international trade opportunities in front of U.S. businesses at earlier stages in the RFP process to give them a competitive edge at market.

  • Led multi-method user research to gain insights about pain points for small-medium U.S. businesses in the international trade market.

  • Identified opportunities for technical automation on the pilot program, and contributed to product design planning sessions to strategize scaling the solution to new continents and trade sectors.

Earlier Career

Vanderbilt University Libraries

Head, Exhibitions and Digital Projects

Nashville, TN
2017-2018

 

  • Directed a cross-functional library exhibitions and digital asset management initiative, leading strategic information architecture, metadata design, and user-centered planning to modernize content systems, strengthen campus partnerships, and align institutional strategy around accessible, data-driven engagement with primary resources.

Metadata and Digital Projects Librarian
Nashville, TN
2013-2017

  • Led cross-functional strategy for metadata and digital asset management for the Special Collections Library, leading task forces, developing sustainable data architectures using open-source software programs, and guiding university-wide teams in schema design.

Consulting

Data management consultant
Sara Sterkenburg, LLC /Nashville, TN
2015-2018

  • Consulted with small to medium sized business to plan and manage large-scale data migration efforts, optimize websites for SEO, conduct user research, and work with organizations to plan data standardization efforts including adopting or forming new taxonomies and ontologies.

General Services Administration

Metadata Librarian
Search.gov program

Contractor: GovWizely / Washington, D.C. (remote)
2012-2013

 

  • Led strategy and ontology-driven improvements for Search.gov by analyzing user research and metadata patterns, advising agencies on search design and API use, and aligning cross-functional roadmap updates that enhanced findability and increased engagement by over 200%.

Certifications & coursework

 

AI for Information Architects, using the OpenAI API with Jorge Arango, Fall 2024

Certified Scrum Master, Scrum Alliance
March 2018

Education

MSI, Human Computer Interaction | University of Michigan, School of Information, 2012

B.A. with honors, History; History of Art | University of Michigan, 2010