About
The loudest door is not always the right one.
Most designers were trained to walk through the obvious door. I came through a different one.
Career statistics
30
Years of practice
Analog, digital, print, web, mobile, and AI
100+
Designers mentored
Thinkful UX/UI program, 2020 to 2024
80+
Digital properties led
Magellan Health enterprise design discipline
The path
I did not learn design in an art school.
Instead, I learned it as a journalist in the Navy, through an HTML class in college, and on the job with a trade magazine, a grassroots firm in Washington, DC, and a healthcare company. I have held onto the craft, and onto the ability to build, through every shift the field has been through since.
In the Navy, I was assigned to write articles and take photographs for the newspaper, and because I was already doing both, they told me I could design the newspaper too. So for me, design was just part of the same job as writing and communicating.
“The door I came through turns out to be the one design needs now.”
The work
Throughout my career, I have designed differently.
I did not learn design in an art school. I learned it as a journalist in the Navy, through an HTML class in college, and on the job. Nobody was going to take my word for it, and handing off a Figma file was never an option. That path turned out to be exactly the preparation the field needs right now.
Long before design systems were standard practice, I thought in terms of systems: Magellan’s first enterprise design discipline across 80 or more digital properties; a CSS customization engine that enabled 3,000 customers to have a different look and feel; a new grid system enabling all those websites to work on all devices.
A design that cannot be defended is just a design. A design that does not live in reality and achieve its goal is just a bunch of smoking mirrors.
“A design that sits on a shelf gathering dust never fulfills its purpose.”
Research first
A design that cannot be traced back to a finding cannot be defended.
Design from synthesis
Let the design come from what the research found, not from instinct.
Ship it real
A design that sits on a shelf gathering dust never fulfills its purpose.
The research
A question I could not let go of.
At Magellan, I designed programs for veterans, people with addiction, and families navigating homelessness. The work looked right, and it passed usability testing. But regardless of what I came up with, my designs always fell short for the people who needed them the most.
That question eventually led me to Carnegie Mellon, where Cameron Tonkinwise named what I was already doing: designing for wicked problems. Later on, it led me to Miami University’s Experience Design MFA program. And after years of research, it ultimately led me to Mythos — a role-play video game designed to help adopted children work through complex trauma alongside a therapist.
Credentials
Thirty years, many doors.
Education across journalism, design, and experience design. Recognition spanning healthcare, enterprise, and financial services. Current work at the intersection of AI, game design, and brand strategy.
Education
- MFA, Experience Design — Miami University, 2021
- MS, Education — California State University Hayward, 2004
- BS, Journalism — University of Maryland, 1997
Recognition
- Rising Star Award, FedEx Reporting, 2022
- Digital Health Bronze Award, Magellan Health, 2018
- MarCom Platinum Award, PCP Behavioral Health Toolkit, 2017
- Multiple Web Awards, Health Care Standard of Excellence, 2013–2016
Current Work
- HCI International 2026 — BrandForge poster, accepted
- Serious Play Conference 2026 — accepted, main presentation
- Inkk Academy — Founder and instructor
Contact
Let’s talk about what your program needs next.
Direct conversation, no pitch deck. Tell me what your program is wrestling with and where it’s behind. I’ll respond with how the method addresses it.
