Story

Why User Experience Design?

A passion for technology and design anthropology was breathed into me at an early age. It might even be traced back to middle school when I built my first website. I also have an innate curiosity for the potentialities of humans and our collective innovations. I have served and collaborated with communities from many different backgrounds.

My driving principle is to design a more human(e) experience. 
Humane Tech means that technology (the application of scientific knowledge) creates a positive and refining effect in people’s lives. What is the motivation behind a piece of technology? Is it designed to manipulate, addict, or censure? It it designed to inform, assist, or improve? By helping people live better,  businesses ultimately help themselves grow and live better too. This is the beauty of the human-centered design, and this is why I love what I do. 

CONNECT THE DOTS

10 Years of Design Inspired by Humans

2008
» Accepted into the University of Minnesota’s honors Graphic Design Program.

2009
» Transferred to the Shintaro Akatsu School of Design, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with a generous scholarship and a thirst for adventure. 

Service for Peace Project

Helped coordinate the MLK Service for Peace Community Day Events

2010
» Elected as vice president of the Service for Peace chapter in Bridgeport and grew a deep appreciation for the diversity of my graduating class, representing over 90 countries.

ZIne Sample

A page from ‘The Informant” a campus zine that raised conversations among millennial students about civic engagement.

2011
» Graduated Summa Cum Laude with the best faculty I could have asked for. My undergraduate thesis was a renegade campus zine that counter-exposed the myths of what we hear in the media. 

Students from Southwestern

Dinner with the sales team I recruited for the Southwestern Advantage company

2011
» Sold books door-to-door for two summers, in Long Island, NY and in Portland, OR. Recruited and managed a team of five, personally generated $50,000 revenue in 10 weeks with a backpack, some social skills, and a good attitude.

UC Magazine Sample

Editorial Sample of UC Magazine

2011
» Accepted a contract job in NYC as an art director for a 30-year-old newspaper to be converted into a full-color quarterly magazine.

Students in Palestine

Students in Palestine – Project Hope Program

2012
» Studied in Jerusalem and completed a peace and coexistence course at the Hebrew University. Volunteered at Project Hope, located in the 
West Bank, Palestine, teaching English and Art to Palestinian women, children, adults, and professors.

Students in Kapchorwa, Uganda

Students in Kapchorwa, Uganda – Educate! Program

2013
» Served as research coordination assistant at Educate! and assisted fundraising initiatives at the youth-led 40/40 project. Both organizations were located in Kampala, Uganda. I led field research for high school teachers starting entrepreneurial programs in their schools. And I developed social media campaigns to raise funds for a local orphanage. 

2013
» Declared my Faith as a Bahá’í, recognizing the oneness of humanity.

2013
» Started GeezLouise! Studio, and began my freelance career in business consulting, designing and building identity, and developing WordPress websites for several organizations and businesses.

Panelist at UN

Myself with fellow panelists in Health and Education at the 2014 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

2014
» Panelist at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Youth In Asheville

Youth In Asheville, NC – Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment

2015
» Began my 4-year service as coordinator for the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program in Asheville, North Carolina. Accompanied several young adults into life-changing service and younger youth living in the margins of opportunity and personal empowerment. 

2015
» Created the Web Design department at Skyrunner Internet Solutions.

2016
» Completed a full-stack development Bootcamp course and was hired at Greenstone Media as a Web Designer, Developer, and Project Manager.

Greenstone Media Team Members

Greenstone Media Team Members

2017
» Hosted two World Cafe’s that brought 100+ diverse people to the table to discuss their experiences.

World Cafe

World Cafe on how to Build Unity Across Different Perspectives

Youth expressing their ideas through art at a World Cafe

2017
» Promoted to Vice President of Software to lead the development team and serve as senior project manager. As the senior project manager, I coordinated agile development sprints and project schedules for up to 6 congruent software projects. Additionally, I served as the Lead Product Strategist where my role was to facilitate many product discovery phases. I closed 8 out of 9 of the software Research and Discovery phases I led. This refined Discovery process
 assisted in tripling the annual revenue growth for our software department.

2018
» Moved to Seattle, WA, and started graduate classes at the University of Washington’s Human-Centered Design and Engineering department. 

Mind Yeti at ISTE Conference 2019

Mind Yeti at ISTE Conference 2019

2019
» Joined Committee for Children as the lead UX Designer for Mind Yeti, a mindfulness app for teachers and parents to take a purposeful pause with their kids.

» Completed a full-service evaluation research project in collaboration with Praxis Associates to measure the ripple effect of one event to influence action for social change.

» Completed the User-Centered Design certificate from the University of Washington.

2020
» Transitioned to Committee for Children’s flagship product, Second Step, to help redesign the online platform that hosts all legacy and new products. The new platform experience was released in August 2020. 

Current
» Busy building out the UX for Committee for Children’s latest product, Second Step SEL for Adults.
» Volunteering as a UX co-instructor at Technology Access Foundation.
» Collaborating with World Cafe founders to create spaces for women leadership and discovering collaborative wisdom latent within groups. 

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