MENTORING & COACHING

Regardless of the amount of experience, designers change and evolve. I love helping them find their next best self. Is it soft skills, hard skills or searching for what they actually want? If they can articulate their goals, helping direct them to success is my sweet spot.

I also like helping those who may not know what design is or what it can do for them understand the breadth of our powers. If we do our job well, we are often invisible and making us and our work visible is fun.

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PRogram direction and course development

As a professor, I developed three graduate design programs to produce multi-faceted graduates who are able to analyze and solve design problems. The programs, a Master of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts in Integrated Design and a post-baccalaureate certification, have consistently included methodologies for ideation, research, testing and prototyping. Those methods have evolved as the design industry continued to grow and evolve. I fostered agility within the programs to be able to respond to market demands such as the growth in service design. I have developed many courses including Design Thinking, Information Design, Creative Methodologies and many in digital development.

Research and consulting

My academic research focused on usability, particularly for low-literacy and senior populations. The work centered on election processes and court interactions. My research partner and I worked to make voting more accessible and simplify processes for elections. A project with the District Court of Maryland simplified the process to apply for and also grant rent escrow petitions.