Resume

Department of Veterans Affairs

Senior UX Designer
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)
2020-2022

 

  • 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

Principal, Web Designer
Sara Sterkenburg, LLC /Nashville, TN
2013-2017

  • Design and optimize user-friendly websites that help small businesses and entrepreneurs attract more customers, generate leads, and grow their online presence.

  • Partner with clients to turn their vision into a high-impact digital experience, using simple, effective design strategies tailored to their goals and budget.

General Services Administration

Product Designer
Search.gov program

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

 

  • Conducted user research with state and federal client users around pain points with the Search.gov administrative portal, which led to a complete redesign that increased engagement by over 200%.

  • Advised government agencies on site search design, SEO, and API capabilities they could leverage to improve on-site search results.

  • Identified common roadblocks within the Search.gov product by collecting user feedback and data metrics, and slotting improvements into the product roadmap.

  • Led CX by developing templated responses and messaging around major pain & happiness points, eliminating bottlenecks in customer feedback.

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