Advocating for people’s well-being through research and design.

I’m transitioning to UX from 16+ years as a Chicago Public Schools music teacher.

Like UX, teaching is a continuous winding path between discovering → defining → developing → delivering.

When I deliberated about career options, I learned that UX would allow me to spend more time doing the things I like most about teaching: finding problems, ideating about solutions, reporting observations, and facilitating engaging sessions.

Two experiences that contributed to my growth as a teacher were ethnographic research studies in grad school and later an action research project. At the time, I had no idea those experiences were leading me to a career as a UX Researcher. In addition, the coursework for the grad school specialty I selected shifted how I support relationships, empathize, and deal with ambiguity.

I advocate for people and communities using a strengths-based approach; I figure out how to expand upon what people already know and do to help create change. One way that human-centered design shows up in my work as a teacher is that I learn every student’s name — that’s roughly 4,000 names and faces so far.

A few of my simple pleasures outside of my career are commuting by bike, eating fresh produce from my garden, and snuggling with my corgi, Winston.