12 Years Leading & Scaling Design Teams | 14 Years in Product Design
20+ Years in Digital Design
VP of Design
Lightci Consulting, Toronto/Remote | June 2023 - November 2024
Led design practice and strategy for AI consultancy projects in edtech, telecom, and fintech, delivering innovative, user-centric solutions for a diverse client base
Played a key role in defining and executing the company’s overall vision and strategy, driving business growth in AI-powered solutions for clients resulting in $125M revenue Y1
Built, scaled, nurtured, and led product design team, fostering creativity and innovation while aligning with business objectives and user needs
Contributed to organizational decision-making processes related to business development, talent acquisition, and operational efficiencies; influencing long-term business strategy and financial planning as part of the SLT; ensuring alignment with market trends and client needs
Provided strategic design consulting as part of the SLT, guiding clients in integrating cutting-edge AI technologies into their products and services
Represented Lightci in high-level client meetings and industry conferences, establishing thought leadership in the AI, edtech, and fintech spaces helping to increase client portfolio by 71%
Spearheaded initiatives to optimize internal collaboration between design, product, and engineering teams, leading to increased productivity and higher quality deliverables for clients and an overall 23% reduction in project timelines
Launched six 0-1 AI-driven products, leveraging design thinking to create seamless, accessible, and impactful digital experiences
Head of Design
Mission Lane, Richmond/Remote | May 2022 – June 2023
Led and mentored a remote first team of 11 cross-functional designers and managers at fintech company offering credit cards and other loan products
Developed design team’s growth through real-time design feedback and coaching, collaborative work, performance management, and goal setting
Scaled the design team from 5-11 in a period of six months
Oversaw the team's efforts across a suite of six products, partnering closely with product, data, growth, and engineering to ensure strong execution from concept through launch
Partnered with executive leadership in shaping the strategic direction of Mission Lane’s products
Established appropriate systems and processes; enabling teams to consistently ship with high quality and velocity
Senior Manager, Product Design
Bread Financial, New York/Remote | July 2020 – April 2022
Led, managed, and scaled fully distributed product design teams for Bread's personal loans, embedded application and checkout experience, merchant portal, and mobile app
Worked with senior leadership, external stakeholders, and partners to move product team initiatives forward to support company health and growth
Scaled and developed a team of 5 junior and senior product designers to level up both tactical and professional skill sets, building and promoting collaborative cross-squad design culture through weekly design critiques and workshops
Guided design team through major company acquisition, transitioning from mid size start-up (~250) to major corporate entity (~8,000)
Led the design team for Bread Loans, a net-new personal loan product, from 0-1 early stage strategy to launch. This new product line tracked to more than double revenue goals for its
initial phase
initial phase
Launched Bread's first in-store offering in partnership with Fiserv to provide BNPL options to 1MM+ Clover merchants
Oversaw design and research for creation of the Bread 2.0 Merchant Portal encompassing both parity and net-new features for the 1000+ Merchants migrating from the Classic Platform
Partnered with Product Management and Engineering Leads to determine strategy and roadmap for our Agile squad
Managed both internal and external user research efforts including discovery workshops, journey mapping, card sorting, surveys, and freeform brainstorming sessions with SMEs and stakeholders
Founding Product Designer
CentralReach, Greater New York City Area | November 2018 – May 2020
Led experience design team across a suite of six Clinical and Business Intelligence products at Applied Behavioral Analysis HealthTech startup
Managed team scheduling, timelines, estimation, and career development for UX team of designers, architects, and researchers
Partnered with product and engineering teams on achievable roadmaps, backlog management, design spike resolution, and sprint cycle management in an Agile product environment
Managed ongoing creation and application of a company-wide design language through the use of atomic design component library
Lead Product Designer
Infragistics, Greater New York City Area | August 2015 – November 2018
Built and led a team of three product designers in moving forward project initiatives and keeping design process on track at software consultancy
Consistently delighted clients by leading a strong and user centered design process from concept to completion of web, enterprise, SaaS, and mobile solutions
Designed compelling and highly interactive data visualizations for external clients
Facilitated design workshops and UX requirements gathering
Collaborated and iterated with international team of UX Architects and UI Developers
Clients Included: The American Institute of CPAs, ASSA ABLOY, BAI, The Doctors Company, Ecteon, Efficient Capital Management, IEEE, Johnson & Johnson, Keysight Technologies, License Dashboard, Penn State University, QRC Analytics, Trimble, V.Ships
Lead UX Designer
Meridian Health, Greater New York City Area | March 2012 – August 2015
Led design and content teams in the effort to redesign, restructure, and rebuild Meridian Health's 800+ page responsive site on a new CMS SaaS platform
Designed and launched responsive websites and mobile apps for Meridian Weightless, Meridian Urgent Care, and AfterHours Immediate Care, and Momtourage
Senior UX Designer
614 New Media, Greater New York City Area | February 2005 – February 2012
Acted as lead designer, information architect, and developer for various projects for interactive agencies and direct clients including Meals on Wheels, Autism Speaks, The Wellness Circle, Mortgage Market Guide, Seasonal World, and Friends of Jazz
Information Architect
MarketSource, Greater New York City Area | November 1999 – August 2001
Clients Included: Arizona Jeans (Webby Award), Arrid, Athenos,Cheez Whiz, Contiki Travel, First Response, Hershey, Imodium, Motrin, Nair, Pepcid, Ponds, Revlon, Splenda, Trojan, and Tylenol
BA, Sociology
Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY
Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY
Honors and Conferences
Bread Hall of Fame Leadership Award Recipient 2022
UXPA Mentor 2020 - Present
UXify Conference Speaker 2019
UXify Conference Speaker 2019
Digital Summit Conference Speaker 2018
UXPA International Conference Speaker 2017
UXPA Student Design Competition Judge 2017