WORK
Experience Designer
ExpandTheRoom
December 2015 – Present
ExpandTheRoom is a digital design & development agency based in New York City. As part of the Experience Design team at ETR, I often lead the research, content strategy, and UX phases of a project. Some of my favorite things to do include talking to stakeholders and end users, analyzing all types of research and identifying insights, auditing content (well, the effort is worth it for the learnings!), and, in general, getting to tackle and solve problems of all shapes and sizes with all kinds of different people. I particularly enjoy working on organizational and structural challenges, like defining the information architecture and content strategy for very large, content-heavy sites. Testing is my best friend and SEO knowledge is my secret weapon.
User Experience Designer
Bluprint Design
February 2014 – November 2015
Bluprint is a digital design shop in New York City. As part of a small team, I got to be intimately involved in projects from conception to completion. I worked on a variety of projects including websites, intranets, and apps, for a variety of clients, ranging from startups to large organizations. On any given week you'd find me doing some combination of researching, meeting with clients, collecting product requirements, architecting information, brainstorming with the team, making mockups, setting up prototypes, writing specs, and creating documentation. I worked closely with designers, developers, and key stakeholders in order to bring products to life.
Manager, Digital Content, Design, and Development
Fairway Market
November 2012 – February 2014
Fairway Market is an NYC-based gourmet grocery store serving NY, NJ, and CT. Fairway hired me as part of the marketing team, to primarily assist with reviewing and managing website content. The role quickly evolved to include oversight of e-mail newsletter content, ad traffic and content management, workflow management of digital content projects from conception through implementation, and curating content from a variety of sources across departments.
Once promoted to digital content manager, responsibilities included managing Fairway's digital content and developing reports to analyze results of digital campaigns. This included maintaining and overseeing execution of an editorial calendar for original digital content including newsletters, website features, in-store video monitors, app, blog posts, videos, photography, and digital ads, as well as coordinating a team of freelancers and internal staff (web team, copywriters, food experts, designers, etc.) to create content as needed to ensure marketing objectives and deadlines were met.
Designer / Developer Intern
Sophicware, LLC
September 2012 – March 2013
Sophicware, LLC is a startup that is focused on providing website development services for non-profit organizations. I primarily developed and created mockups for a client's new website based on client input as well as wrote code for site QA testing using Cucumber (learned a little bit of Ruby along the way).
Research Analyst
Vanderbilt University
May 2011 – August 2012
I served as a key analyst on a community-based participatory research project to improve diabetes care by developing health information technology tools to educate, motivate, and engage the community in diabetes management. My primary responsibilities included conducting on-site interviews and focus groups with community residents to identify structural and behavioral barriers to diabetes care and analyzing data using Atlas.ti qualitative coding software and SPSS statistical software. I assisted in identifying challenges, such as food deserts, that may contribute to poor nutrition within this population, using visual GIS software (ArcMap) to illustrate this point. I also assisted in developing project websites using Microsoft Visual Studio and created presentations of findings for tribal leadership, including a 20-minute video using Adobe Premiere Elements.
EDUCATION
M.A. in Medicine, Health, and Society
Vanderbilt University, 2011
Studies had a global and public health focus with an emphasis on studying health, health care systems, and health policies in their social and cultural contexts, and using an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. I also served as a Teaching Assistant for several undergraduate classes including Medicine in Literature and Social Psychology.
B.S. in Cognitive Studies
Vanderbilt University, 2010
I graduated with a major in Cognitive Studies, and double minored in MHS (Medicine, Health, and Society) and Managerial Studies with a focus in Leadership and Organization. Primary studies included how humans think, communicate, and learn, with an emphasis on problem-solving and complex decision making. While at Vandy, I worked part-time as a Project Assistant for the Bio-Nutrition department of the Vanderbilt Clinical Research Center, where I led a project to improve teamwork among personnel as well as evaluated participant/patient satisfaction. I also worked for the Student Affairs office at Vanderbilt Law School where I maintained and edited the Student Affairs section of the Law School's intranet. Little did I know, the seeds were getting sown for a career in user experience.
Software Experience
Sketch, UXPin, OmniGraffle, InVision, Slack, Asana, Pivotal Tracker, Codebase, Google Apps, Typeform, Keynote, Dropbox, Transmit, Sublime Text
Want more? Check out my portfolio.