About

I grew up in Ireland and moved to Seattle in the early 90s. I attended Seattle Central Community College in 1993 and received a 2-year Certificate in Graphic Design & Illustration. My goal at graduation was to become a freelance illustrator. However, I became interested in web design and took a HTML class at the School of Visual Concepts (SVC) and I was hooked! I began my career hand-coding HTML and learning everything I could about this new medium.

A few years into my career, I became more interested in interaction design, user research and the process of user-centered design. I completed a Graduate Certificate in User-Centered Design at the University of Washington (UW) in 2004. As I moved into a UX manager role with POP, I also completed a Graduate Certificate in Design Firm Leadership and Management from the UW in 2009. 

During my time at Microsoft, Amazon and Google, I have honed my interaction design, user research and people management skills and I am experienced delivering design value in the context of large technology companies. In 2017, I completed a Masters in Design Management from Staffordshire University in the UK. I really enjoyed the program and completed my final thesis focused on integrating design into a technology company.

I consider myself a life-long learner and I genuinely love the design profession. I look forward to continuing to work on interesting problems and leading amazing design teams.