Nimbus Consulting  — Human Centered Design SME

NOVEMBER 2024 - PRESENT

For the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS): 

  • Serve as the Subject Matter Expert for Human Centered Design on two projects for the Center for Clinical Standards & Quality at CMS

  • Work closely with business and product owners, divisional leadership, and technical and business analysts to craft usable solutions to complex procurement and contract management problems

  • Apply principles of user-centered design to business process improvements, working within CMS’s infrastructure products (SharePoint, Confluence, Jira, and enterprise contract lifecycle management tools)

  • Perform research, develop content, create and refine wireframes, and create strategies for socializing process changes with the day-to-day users

IBM  — Experience Consultant

JULY 2022  - NOVEMBER 2024

For the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (a bureau of US Treasury),  on an enterprise-wide modernization contract:

  • Persuaded product owners, developers, and administrators to adopt research-based, user-centered solutions

  • Led successful  online workshops with large distributed teams 

  • Wrote content for myTTB and worked with legal counsel to ensure compliance

  • Guided product development via effective and informative user tests and interviews 

  • Navigated conflicting priorities both in and outside the contract team with tact, diplomacy, and a results-oriented approach

  • Mentored junior team members

  • Implemented  accessibility and standards-based approaches

For the US Department of the Treasury (Departmental Offices), conceived, designed, and oversaw the implementation of Treasury’s internal sites.  

  • Collaborated with with the Treasury’s  Office of International Affairs and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (chair: Janet Yellen)

  • Created actionable content strategies based on user research, personas, and journey maps

  • Helped Treasury adopt user-centered design principles

  • Created new content and advised client on existing content

  • Launched two complex projects on time and on budget, despite lean resources and a tight timeframe

Sparkbox — User Experience Strategist

MARCH  2021 - MAY  2022

  • Developed UX best practices and methodologies in a UX-naïve culture 

  • Advocated for best practices in accessibility

  • Solved complex business problems for clients such as Docusign and Adobe

  • Increased company revenue with content marketing, writing articles, blog posts, and social media content)

Becton-Dickinson — User Experience Strategist

APRIL 2019 - AUGUST  2019 (SHORT-TERM CONTRACT)

  • Designed elegant and effective solutions for specialized software products used in microbiology labs

  • Served as a key part of a global, international  UX team, meeting tight deadlines with lean resources

  • Conducted user and competitive research to help bring best practices to a company previously focused on hardware, not software

  • Wrote microcopy for developers working to deadlines in a Scrum environment

General Dynamics — User Experience Strategist

JANUARY 2018 - APRIL 2019 

  • Created user-centered student experiences on GDIT’s  multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract to provide education to all federal military and civilian  personnel and U.S. Cyber Command

  • Advocated for, and wrote, student-centered content for the Academy’s main website and its microsites

  • Developed valid, low risk  user testing methodologies within the highly secured federal law enforcement, defense, and intelligence space

  • Uncovered and leveraged analytics and data to guide program development and target programs to prospective students in intelligence, military, and law enforcement

  • Wrote position requirements and evaluated candidates in order to build out a new user experience and design team

Pearson Education — User Experience Researcher / Designer

SEPTEMBER 2016 - JUNE 2017

  • Designed and executed the research that informed Pearson’s flagship K-12 virtual learning platform

  • Worked successfully with multiple stakeholders in an Agile development environment

  • Developed clear and effective information architectures, user journeys,  sitemaps, wireframes, and prototypes

  • Wrote microcopy and instructional copy for student tests/assessments to fill gaps in the product

  • Created a framework for third-party product evaluation, assisting leadership in decision making

  • Guided UX team on 508 compliance and accessible design standards

  • Was UX Lead for the company’s winning team in the  2016 annual Hackathon

EDUCATION

University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD — Bachelor of Arts, Summa cum laude

MAY 2004

English degree with a concentration in professional writing

ABOUT

  • Creative problem-solver who gets results

  • Leader of global teams from diverse backgrounds

  • Accomplished (published) writer and communicator

  • Active security clearance with US Government

  • Relocation is an option

SKILLS

Artificial intelligence - WatsonX, GPT, LLaMA, Stable Diffusion 

Analytics - Tableau and Google Analytics 3 & 4

Wireframing and prototyping-Figma, Adobe XD, and Axure

User Research - moderated, unmoderated, card sorting, tree testing, interviews, heuristics, personas, journeys

Content strategy, development, and content management

Agile methodologies - Scrum, SAFE

LANGUAGES

English, French


WRITING

Literary Publications

  • Mississippi Review (short story)

  • Shattered Wig Review

  • The Pearl

  • Ant Magazine 

Blogging

Maintained a personal blog from 2004 Home of Dismay, which grew to tens of thousands of page views per month

OTHER

Adjunct professor, University of Baltimore —Interaction Design graduate program

FALL 2007

Designed and taught a course in  project management to students in the graduate Interaction Design program at University of Baltimore

Volunteering

  • Served 3 years on the board of my urban Baltimore neighborhood's civic association

  • Lobbied in the state capital on behalf of NAMI, the National Association for the Mentally Ill

  • Member of the board of a local group of ~200 women creatives for 2 years

  • Prepared  home-cooked meals for the families of sick children at Johns Hopkins Hospital's Believe in Tomorrow House

  • Packed meals for delivery during COVID for Meals on Wheels

  • Wrote grant proposals  for The Children's Home, a residential treatment center for at-risk teen girls in Baltimore

  • Alumni student mentor at my alma mater, University of Baltimore