I graduated from Arizona St. with a degree in Industrial Design in 2003. ASU provided me one of the best foundations an aspiring designer could have; a developing craft, communication, and design thinking tool-set that enabled me to tackle any design challenge for years to come.

This foundation helped me land me an amazing job at IBM, and it’s during my time there when I truly grew up in design. I was part of an exceptional team inside one of the worlds most valuable brands with one of the most storied and successful corporate design programs in history. My team had a lineage to the mission, values, and philosophy originally crafted by Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, and Paul Rand under lead from Eliot Noyes. Nearly 1 week of each of my 10 years at IBM was spent in collaboration under guidance of the iconic Richard Sapper. From that team and the amazing relationships I built rose a deep understanding of craftsmanship, of quality, and the discipline required for leading change.

I called upon the lessons IBM taught me every day that I served at Honeywell as I influenced and led product and operations teams alike in creating user-centric solutions. There, my expertise was lent to coaching teams, executive stakeholders, and design staff on our practice, on connecting dots between user needs and business objectives, and leading efforts to materialize the vision.

Through 20 years of career and time spent on collaborative, diverse teams I’ve developed a sense of responsibility in mentorship and sharing my knowledge with those who might succeed me. To instill in them what has been instilled in me: those principles and behaviors that pose designers as change-agents, as curators, as researchers, and as those who may define our preferred future.