Resume

Work Experience

Design Lead, Accessibility SME

October 2023 - Present

Chicago, IL - Remote

Lead a research and design team of 5 across 3 companies to digitize Veteran-facing forms on the Veterans Affairs website (VA.gov)
- Coach and advise team on accessibility, design, and research best practices
Develop strategic UX roadmap and collaborate with product, delivery, engineering, and stakeholder partners to ensure high-quality, prioritized delivery for 5 Veteran-facing forms
- Proactively identify and mitigate risks to ensure project success and timely delivery
- Identify areas for strategic impact within the delivery program and client programs
Create and execute 6 stakeholder and user research studies to inform the digitization initiative and future state for 2 VA programs serving over 1 million Veterans and family members
- Share research insights with 250+ UXers as well as engineers, stakeholders, and product partners to create impact across Ad Hoc and the VA
- Create impact-effort matrices to prioritize design improvements considering impact to the user, engineering effort, and delivery timelines
- Communicate research and resulting decisions on Github to ensure easy access for VA UX team

Sr. Accessibility Designer

June 2022 - August 2023

Chicago, IL - Remote

Collaborate with 6 UX/UI and accessibility teams to intertwine inclusive design with product development and engineering, leading to risk reduction and a ~30% reduction in development costs
Advise best practices for web, iOS, and Android to build or iterate on ~15 end-to-end flows
Develop and execute 7 exploratory UX research projects conducted with assistive technology users to establish new best practices beyond WCAG compliance
Present results of inclusive user research to design organization of 300+ individuals and leaders
Contribute to strategic restructuring of Inclusive Design department to prioritize highest-impact work
Advocate for accessible and inclusive solutions across all levels of the design organization

UX Manager and Accessibility Team Lead

January - June 2022

Chicago, IL - Remote

Developed baseline accessibility compliance standards for UX/UI team which were implemented in 10+ website projects
Designed an inclusive participant survey leading to 25% increase in user research participation by people with disabilities
Orchestrated cross-functional teams and stakeholders to discover and remediate a11y issues before website launch, leading to a 10%+ decrease in post-launch a11y bugs
Established internal WCAG documenting successful a11y solutions in Drupal and WordPress leading to 20% reduction in hours
Led over 100 hours of a11y training in 2021 for client content editors and internal stakeholders

UX Manager

January 2021 - June 2022

UX lead on 7 website projects from kickoff through development, including all user research, UX design, and usability testing
Directed UX research and design conducted by Jr. UX Researcher on all additional client projects
Analyze all user and stakeholder research results and deliver actionable discovery reports
Design new website information architecture and wireframes based on key findings from user and stakeholder research on 10+ projects
Collaborate with UI team, product owners, and development team to ensure client goals are met quickly and within budget

June 2021

Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC)

Chicago, IL - Remote

2018

M.A., Anthropology

Chicago, IL

2014

B.A., Psychology and Anthropology, summa cum laude

Pittsburgh, PA