Current Position / Employer: Senior UX Designer, Research Information Technology Department, The Ohio State University College of Medicine

Degree with Department Affiliation and Graduation Date: Master of Fine Arts, Design Research and Development, Department of Design, May 2021

Thesis Title: Implementing Service Design Methodology Towards the Student Journey for Mental Health Challenges

1. Tell us what you are doing professionally at the current time (please include specific projects you have worked on):

In my current role, my department supports clinical researchers by creating tools and infrastructure that make data collection and management more efficient, intuitive, and impactful. I’m considered a generalist, though much of my work centers around user research. I conduct interviews, facilitate co-design sessions, and create design artifacts that capture user needs and ideal experiences. These activities inform the development of new potential and existing software used by a variety of roles and disciplines within the College of Medicine.

One example of my team’s work includes creating a new platform that uses automation to help researchers do their best work by reducing the burden of repetitive, tedious tasks and increasing their bandwidth to draw meaningful insights from qualitative research data. This process includes regularly engaging with representative users to understand their current experience as researchers, collectively imagine more ideal scenarios and co-create features to be tested with other clinical researchers.

2. What inspires your creativity today?

Good question. My cynical answer is seeing the wealth of problems that exist in the world. I think when you study to be a designer, it’s almost impossible to move through the world without finding problems. I’ll admit, it’s easy to fall into nihilism with this perspective. But ultimately it fuels my courage to think of solutions for a more ideal world and worry about the feasibility later (…or never). Specific to my current role, I’m always inspired (and elated) to see journal papers and research studies in healthcare that include a user experience component. This is what helps validate my choice to return to Ohio State in this capacity and motivates me to make my contribution to the field.

3. Tell us one “Aha” moment from your experience of studying, researching, or working at ACCAD.

When I came into the design program, I knew I wanted to explore something at the intersection of mental health and design. Even when I hadn’t decided, the more I talked about my exploration, the more I noticed how open other students were talking about their experiences in trying to access mental health resources with me. Ultimately, this encouraged me to center the voices of these people for my thesis research via a co-design mindset and co-creative methods. This also helped me solidify what kind of researcher and designer I wanted to be, which was someone who valued the lived experience, wanted to create solutions based on how people actually lived and behaved, and wanted to encourage others to make things.

4. What would you say to your “Undergraduate” or “Graduate” self about studying at Ohio State now that you have graduated? Or what advice would you give to current students taking classes at ACCAD?

To undergraduate self: You can’t even imagine exactly what it is you’re going to do yet. Follow what really excites you, even if it feels unconventional or against the grain.

To graduate self: When you’re overthinking, make more terrible things. It’s through those imperfect attempts that you’ll accelerate your learning and stumble upon unexpected breakthroughs.

Current students: Don’t be afraid to explore areas far outside your proposed research focus. Some of the most valuable lessons and inspirations come from disciplines or practices you’ve never considered before. And you can always change your mind.

To all of the above: You are and always have been enough. You deserve to explore your curiosity in the way that is most engaging and authentic to you. Your ideas are valuable and worth the effort. You deserve to be here.

5. How could Ohio State better prepare people for a career that combines art, design, computer science, digital media and new technologies?

I’ve always admired the highly collaborative, networked and interdisciplinary environment of ACCAD that I think could be expanded into the university at large and increase the exposure of the talent at these intersections.

The university could work to foster more partnerships between departments and external institutions in traditional fields such as healthcare, finance, social work etc., use these partnerships to structure programs/projects for students within art, design and tech to explore and solve real world problems within those fields, and be able to showcase this work to these partners and start to build their network before graduation. Showing how these disciplines can be embedded in different domains where they’re not traditionally found would not only encourage students to think beyond the boundaries of their fields, but also expose the level of innovation across industries within and outside of Ohio State.

6. What most helps you to balance life and career expectations? How do you relax or de-stress?

For me, balance comes from intentionally setting aside days to do absolutely nothing. Like many others post-pandemic, I’ve been making rest a higher priority (Highly recommend reading Tricia Hersey’s “Rest is Resistance.”). When I make this my objective, it creates space to simply exist and follow whatever moves me in the moment—whether that’s making art, moving my body in big or small ways, sprucing house, or just lying on the couch and rewatching Bojack Horseman for the 10th time. This helps me recharge and maintain a sense of equilibrium amid the demands of my job and life in general.

7. Tell us a fun thing (or something) most people don’t know about you?

I’ve been learning figure skating for the last 8 years. It’s very challenging and produces a growing awareness of muscles I didn’t know I had. But it’s so much fun, great exercise, and there are always goals to work towards in the process. I passed my first skate test this year and am working with a coach to pass the next one. I’m still working up the courage to perform and eventually compete.

8. What would an alternate career choice be, if you could go back and choose a different path?

If I had more courage, I would have pursued a career as a comic creator much earlier in life. It’s my favorite format for telling stories about anything and everything. I love the idea of bringing unique worlds and characters to life through both writing and illustration. That said, I believe there’s still time to explore this path!