I’m an analytical, collaborative leader who meets business goals with user-centered design.
From launching a paywall for New York Times Cooking to evangelizing responsive design for Harvard University, I use design and a no-ego environment to galvanize others to better understand the task at hand. I inspire my team to ship high-quality, creative solutions that are both focused and part of a holistic vision.
I’m currently a Product Design Director at The New York Times, evolving NYT Cooking’s website and apps. Previously, I designed custom, responsive websites at Happy Cog. I earned an MFA in Graphic Design from Maryland Institute College of Art and BA in Fine Arts (concentration in Communication Design) from the University of Pennsylvania.
Speaking & teaching
- LecturerGraphic Design M.A. Workshop Maryland Institute College of Art 3/20
- LecturerProducts of Design M.F.A. Interaction Design Practices School of Visual Arts 2/20
- InstructorTypography II Maryland Institute College of Art 1–5/16
- PanelistUndergraduate Fine Arts Alumni Career Panel University of Pennsylvania 4/15
- Speaker“All Together Now: Content & Collaboration in a Responsive Redesign” Confab Central Content Strategy Conference 5/14
- Podcast GuestLadies in Tech 5/14
- LecturerTypography II Maryland Institute College of Art 6/12
- Graduate Teaching InternGraphic Design I Maryland Institute College of Art 9–12/10
- Classroom AssistantGraphic Design University of Pennsylvania 9–12/08
Let's talk more about
- Typefaces, new or old, for print or web
- West Wing, The Wire, or your TV show of choice
- My latest experiments with sous vide and homemade pasta, and recipes you stand by
- Tennis rivalries in the Open era
- Walking routes in Baltimore City
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Knowing what’s next
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Tailoring e-commerce to a high-touch industry
David’s Bridal had recently replatformed and responsified its website, but its user experience faltered and the design already felt outdated to new branding. To be seen as a world-class authority in wedding attire, David’s needed to reset perceptions and present a website that went beyond pushing product.
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The design value of content audits
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On board with artboards
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Going outside the box of higher education
With its students graduating to become engineers, physicians, architects, and designers, NYIT wanted a new website that matched the energy and innovation embedded in its campuses. My design concept was selected and applied across the site’s 13 templates for the redesign.
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Divide and conquer
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Channeling your back-end developer
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Establishing a hub for innovative research and thinkers
With years of grants, events, and research under its belt, the Institute for New Economic Thinking had outgrown both its website architecture and its CMS. To justify itself to donors and the academic community, the Institute needed a new website that could connect its disparate content and amplify its work.
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The belly rules the mind
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Showing a commitment to nontraditional learners
Harvard Extension School has served as a longstanding institution of continuing education for 100+ years, but its web presence was making its academic offerings and relationship to Harvard University murky. Set on increasing student enrollment and retention, the Extension School wanted a new, responsive website that was as accessible as learning at Harvard.
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Webfont licensing 101
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It’s like a zoo in here
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Getting the most out of type specimens
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I thought I had moths
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Frequently asked questions on FAQs
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Do the chop chop
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Building a home for a national real estate brokerage
While NRT is the largest residential real estate brokerage in the nation, its franchised Coldwell Banker online presence was spread across 17 regional desktop websites. Losing competition to aggregator websites and other brokerages, NRT wanted to focus its resources, traffic, SEO, and local content into a single website with a superior property search.
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My wheelie is long enough
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Merging three sites into one Harvard
Operating multiple websites, Harvard College had created a confusing, fragmented, and duplicative digital experience. To break down internal silos, the undergraduate school needed a single, student-centered destination that put content first.
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From my head to the browser
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Aligning type to a brand
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Translating an Iron Chef’s dishes and hospitality to event planning
Iron Chef Jose Garces’ restaurant group was determined to focus more attention on its event planning division. Garces Events needed a refreshed aesthetic and user experience that would increase inquiries, appeal to both planners and social customers, and cross-sell catering services with restaurant private events.
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Overwriting less
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Helping a global brand celebrate its euphoric flavors
Looking to evolve and align its digital brand, Ben & Jerry’s wanted to turn its mobile and desktop sites into a single responsive, easy-to-navigate, memorable website. In this first phase of work, I developed an extensible site structure and brainstormed creative executions through responsive HTML wireframes.
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Prepping an educational company to score higher with customers
In appealing to a wide range of test-prepping audiences, Kaplan Test Prep had developed a complex series of product offerings. Its website needed to better guide customers to understand its products, find the right prep for them, and proceed effortlessly through an online checkout process.
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Elevating the podium
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Promoting a font series designed for small sizes on screen
This microsite introduces Font Bureau’s Reading Edge™ (RE) series, a first-of-its-kind group of typefaces designed from scratch to serve highly readable small text on screen. The site aims to impart a deeper understanding of the anatomy of readable type while directing users to purchase the fonts.
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Pairing typefaces
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Teaching how to pair typefaces—with a sense of humor
Type Connection is an online game that helps users learn how to pair typefaces. Like a conventional dating website, Type Connection presents its users with potential “dates” for each main character. Users are matchmakers; they decide what kind of match to look for by choosing among several strategies for combining typefaces.
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I love...
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Increasing appetite for affordable, healthy food
As part of an interdisciplinary design studio, I researched and tested designs to encourage healthy eating in Baltimore’s food deserts. We collaborated with a virtual supermarket program—where residents could order and pick up groceries at their local library or school—to run a month-long promotion.
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Recounting an immersion in various subcultures
Embracing the tradition of zines’ focused audiences, a fellow designer and I immersed ourselves in three subcultures in which we considered ourselves novices: chess, beer, and guns. Through our own zine, we set out to tell our experience through the stories of those we met.
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Cooking up a food and design magazine
This hypothetical magazine presents the proliferation of “things” designed around what we eat. Targeting designers and foodies, Spread underscores that good design can elevate our food experience. Its pilot issue features current designs that stand out on the shelf or in the marketplace.