Speaking & Thought Leadership
Building a Practice of Inclusive Design
Originally presented at Mad*Pow’s Health Experience Design conference in 2022, the creation of this workshop content was a collaborative effort. I ran the workshop in May 2023 at the Design Management Institute’s Diversity in Design Conference. I wanted participants to know that Inclusive design is an approach to our work that considers the full range of human identities and respects the great diversity in factors like ability, gender, age, race and culture, sexuality, and socio-economic situation. We approach inclusive design as a journey, not a destination. It is a mindset and an ongoing method, with the goal of creating systems/products/ services/experiences that are built on a foundation of equity and offer everyone a sense of belonging. The workshop focuses on both theory and actionable practices people can use to get started with their own practice of inclusive design.
Design Museum Everywhere Podcast: Using Futures Thinking to Prevent Burnout
I chatted with Executive and Creative Director, Sam Aquillano on the way that some human problems can be addressed by design thinking. I am joined by my friend and colleague Liz Possee Corthell, another Senior Experience Strategist at Mad*Pow, to discuss futures thinking and how it can prevent burnout. Earlier in the pandemic, we were faced with the question, “how do you safely bring people back into their offices?” What we uncovered were the tools to build personal resilience while working remotely. Together, we chat about the use of mental models, equity in design, and the way burnout manifests.
Creating a Resilient Remote Culture Today to Design the Future of Work Tomorrow
In May of 2020, my colleague Liz and I were tasked with answering the question "What does the future of work look like?" In our quest for the answer, we discovered the challenges and benefits teams are dealing with today while they work from home amidst the pandemic.
The future of workspaces and working styles will likely continue to evolve, creating opportunities for blending digital and physical workplace experiences as well as a need to build a more resilient work from home force. As we imagine what the future of work might look like, it’s also important to implement strategies that help us today.
In this talk, we discuss a recent case study that examines cycles of recharge and burnout in employees working from home. Then, we will pose visions for the possible future, including interesting tools to use and experiments to run with your remote teams. Finally, we challenge folks to imagine what the future of work could be. What do we want it to be and how do we get there together?”
Choose Empathy over Fear: Inclusion in an Era of Isolation
In April of 2020, I gave this talk about how we can decrease our emotional distance through empathy when we are physically separate. We spend approximately 90,000 hours of our lives at work, so increasing empathy with our teammates is critical. To foster interpersonal risk-taking, we must value learning over our image. I share my own struggles with depression and anxiety, including the lessons I learned about empathy and team dynamics when I committed myself to a Partial Hospitalization Program. I adapted these lessons into a project team experience that created a psychologically safe team; where team members are empowered to admit their mistakes and find ways to learn from them.
Redesigning Mass.gov: Design Critique & Engagement
In March of 2017, I was on a panel for the Mass.gov redesign, hosted by AIGA at District Hall. The presentation was given by our main stakeholder at the Commonwealth Harlan Weber, and touched upon our process, and asked for feedback on our logo directions. We also had a Q&A session, where attendees asked myself and others on the panel about the redesign.
She Geeks Out Presentation: The Role of Emotional Intelligence on Collaborative Teams
This is a presentation I gave at the She Geeks Out networking event in October of 2016, about the role of emotional intelligence on collaborative teams. I've always been a psychology nerd, so this was one of the most exciting topics I've spoken about.
Women's Leadership Series: The Impact of Mentoring
As a member of Velir's Women's Initiative, I suggested we have an event about the impact of mentoring. As women in tech are still a minority, I thought it was important to showcase a group of women, each at a different point in their career. At the event, they shared their stories, and talked about the impact mentorship has had on them.
Simply Consistency: A Public Interface Interview
In August of 2017, a coworker interviewed me, asking about what goes into designing effective user experiences. Specifically, I talk about how to work with clients on UX design for high-content sites, the importance of understanding internal company language, acronyms, etc. to help clients solve problems, and how consistency is the key for great user experiences.