Résumé

EXPERIENCE Spring 2008 to Present · Pittsburgh PA Pink Design LLC Principal Designer and Cofounder Cofounded a design consultancy that helps companies imagine and create new services products. Africa Aid. Currently improving the user experience, sense of community, and functionality of a free cell phone service that connects all doctors in Ghana through ethnographic research and organizational design. GlaxoSmithKline. Developed novel service concept to accompany flu vaccines sold to large corporations. Facilitated problem finding, data analysis, and prototyping. Our team developed a mobile money management system for Microsoft and Motorola that incorporated a contextually aware device, and user education. Winter 2005 to Summer 2007 · Philadelphia, PA Microsoft’s School of the Future High School Science Teacher One of the founding teachers at Microsoft’s first venture into public schools. Participated in Harvard online course for curriculum theory, created digitally based science curriculum for 65 students, managed all internal staff meetings. Summers of 2003 + 2004 · Cambridge, MA Minority Intro to Engineering and Science Teaching Assistant Conducted recitation sessions and tutorials for the HTML and PERL programming course of 30 high school students on MIT’s campus. Winter 2001 to Spring 2003 · Cambridge, MA Community Tech Centers’ Network Special Projects Coordinator Coordinator for a new project to install wireless networks in lower income areas in Boston. Recruited a team of professionals and managed the project. Acted as liaison between team, community organizations, and Community Technology Centers’ Network.		EDUCATION Summer 2007 to Summer 2008 · Pittsburgh, PA Carnegie Mellon University Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction Completed coursework in HCI methodologies and Design. Schell Games. Improved usability of internal project management software through HCI research methods, and design. Microsoft + Motorola. Developed software/service concept to utilize contextual awareness of mobile devices and to promote learning and management of finances. University of Pittsburgh, Dental Informatics. As Design Lead of HCI team, developed a prototype form factor and interface for a novel chair-side input device for dentists. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Worked with Hospital Management on problem finding, creating service concepts to socially connect hospital silos and to reduce employee fatigue. Fall 2000 to Spring 2004 · Cambridge, MA Massachusetts Institute of Technology B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Science Additional classes in Computer Science and Fine Arts. Recipient of Office of Minority Education Award for Academic Excellence from 2001 to 2004. Martin Luther King Art Installation. Managed teams of 50+ students to design and implement large art installations on MIT’s campus in honor of MLK Day. Measuring Readability of Automatic Speech-to-Text. Contributed to an academic psycholinguistic study. Created novel recruitment and user research methods and performed statistical analysis.
DOWNLOAD A PDF OF MY RESUME ↓		↑ ⇑

Projects

a mobile finance manager Our team developed a mobile money management system for Microsoft and Motorola that incorporated a contextually aware device, and user education. We worked with two clients, Microsoft and Motorola, and had a semester to develop a new mobile device that used current and future concepts of contextual awareness that also educated the user. Our solution was Current·C, a card with a magnetic strip and a screen that would replace all the other cards in a person's wallet. Current·C is a physical device that can emulate your credit cards and debit cards, choose the right card where ever you are to maximize points and saving, show you your current financial state on the go, and promote learning better financial habits. Current·C is also a back-end service that takes information from all of your accounts and aggregates them into one view, to show your financial state based on budgets and goals, as apposed to accounts and balances. INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION All Team members participated in the research, design, and implementation of prototypes for this project. I made individual contributions in ethnographic interviews, conceptual modeling, service conception, and presentation. COLLABORATORS Gabe Clapper → Mellisa Cliver → Lesley Fleishman → Christina Payne PROJECT DETAILS For Graduate Design Studio II at Carnegie Mellon Winner of Tepper Mini Business Plan Competition January 2009 Winner of Microsoft Research Design Expo July 2008 EXTERNAL LINKS CMU Design School Article →
↑ ⇑
a health manager GSK approached Pink Service Design to implement a service that would add value to their current flu vaccine offerings. GSK provides vaccines to large corporations and wanted to improve the end user experience through service design. We worked closely with the Flu Vaccine team to create a concept, Ginger, that is a web centered health management system that employers can offer as part of their benefits packages to employees. INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION Pink worked throughout the entire length of the project. I individually contributed to the service conception, personas and scenarios, as well as design presentations, and client communication. COLLABORATORS Steve Selzer → PROJECT DETAILS For Pink, the Service Design firm founded by Steve Selzer and myself. EXTERNAL LINKS Pop City Magazine: Carnegie Mellon Start-Up in the Pink →
↑ ⇑
a way to connect doctors in ghana Africa Aid currently provides free calls between doctors in Ghana and Liberia. These calls are vital for the effectiveness of medicine in these countries because unlike in the US, in Ghana and Liberia, doctors might be hundreds of miles away from the nearest specialists. Africa Aid approached my design company, Pink, to help improve the doctor experience of all aspects of the service, as well as develop new functionality. INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION Pink is currently working on this project. I have personally contributed to ethnographic research, and the development of conceptual models for the information flow between organizations and the relationships and power structures of all organizations involved. COLLABORATORS Steve Selzer → PROJECT DETAILS Pink hired by Africa Aid
↑ ⇑
a chair-side interface for dentists Our team of four Human Computer Interaction graduate students worked with the Dental Informatics group to develop a novel chairside input device for dentists. We moved from literature reviews, to contextual inquiry, to design and implementation. As a design team, we were given full range of problem finding as well as problem solving, and developed a novel touch screen interface that dentists could use in the absence of dental assistants. INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION I participated in literature reviews, user interviews, conception, and validation alongside my team members. Individually, I acted as Design lead and managed the conception process, persona and scenario development, as well as wireframing, and interface testing with users. COLLABORATORS Sam Hasemi → Jackie Weber → Jaanus Kase → PROJECT DETAILS EXTERNAL LINKS CMU Homepage: Student Team Tackles Challenge → Adobe Success Story → Project site →
↑ ⇑