All designers are hands-on at Work & Co. While I led project teams, mentored, and guided designers across all aspects of their work, I was actively creating wireframes, concept frameworks, user flows, and detailed interaction designs for all projects, as well as owning and leading design systems and processes for clients.
Applied my expertise in user-centered design methods to create detailed, impactful user experiences, from the initial concepting phase through user testing and launch.
Managed and supported the Design team, and oversaw work from all disciplines including product design, UX, visual design, research, content strategy, and motion.
Created, reimagined, and led designs for multiple platforms and products including responsive web, design systems, software and tools, Android and iOS.
Collaborated closely with Design, Technology and Product Management partners to understand business goals, accessibility, and development approach.
Mentored, coached, and developed designers across the company.
Created designs and led the direction for core digital products with YouTube, TikTok, The PGA TOUR, Audacy, Vail Resorts, J.P Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, State Street Global Advisors, Harley-Davidson, Disney, Outdoorsy, Mailchimp, VistaPrint, Marriott, Expa, Politico, TechCrunch, Eco Media, CAVA, Fox Entertainment, Gol Airlines, and LifeMiles – most were developed and launched.
As someone who worked both in-house and agency-side, I have a unique perspective. I think about digital products and tools in a holistic way – how to work with & conduct research to identify business needs, create concepts that embody the brand and serve users, how to tweak & improve their performance over time, and how they impact business results.
Developing new products versus evolving existing ones is vastly different. I find that thinking about the experience end-to-end drives the best possible outcome.
I’m originally from Erie, Pennsylvania, one of the snowiest cities in the world. Growing up there instilled in me a love of the outdoors, being with family, eating Polish food, and road trips. Now I split my time between New York City and the Catskills. I'm drawn to the mountains and all the skiing, cycling, and hiking that come with it.
Opened a product design office in NYC to lead redesign efforts for the Washington Post's web platform. We worked on scope, strategy and execution of a site-wide rethink involving CMS capabilities as well as consumer-facing experiences.
Built the team from scratch, hiring design and strategy veterans from different industries with experience in solving complex design challenges, research, UX, and product development.
Collaborated closely with the newsroom, engineering and advertising on developing a product roadmap and implemented design sprints to generate ideas and concepts for user testing.
Designed plans and interviews for user testing sessions and developed recruiting strategies for both internal and external testers.
Worked on design strategy and assisted in hiring for the Coral Project, a collaboration between the Washington Post, the New York-Times, the Knight Foundation and Mozilla to build an open-source commenting platform.
Member of the core leadership team in the newsroom that focused on setting strategy and priorities for company-wide initiatives.
Built and managed a nimble team focused on digital, mobile and new product design, and created positions for and hired specialists in user experience, interaction design and development, motion graphics and visual design.
As readership habits changed and technology evolved, I had the honor of being a key voice in how to rethink core news products. I conceptualized and designed news products such as a live events platform, the politics app for Election 2012, an enterprise story template and created and evolved the designs for the iPad app.
Launched a site-wide redesign in 2011, including a new CMS, and a design refresh in 2014.
Worked in partnership with Google, Tumblr, Storify, Twitter and Facebook on creating new products for news consumption.
This was a presentation I created to explain the overall thinking and approach for a sitewide redesign project.
Created a fully responsive story template in collaboration with all visual teams at the Post.
Created a custom responsive story template that became the foundation for all enterprise stories.
Worked on overall design strategy for a live events platform for the political conventions in 2012.
Planned and designed the homepage for The Washington Post throughout the night of the presidential election.
Designed an interactive app to dig into political issues during campaign 2012.
Lead design and UX for a 2-year investivative series focused on the expanding world of government agencies and intellegence since 9/11.
Designed the original Washington Post for iPad app, launched in 2010.
Adjunct Professor, 2013 | I taught a course that focused on digital design in media and design thinking methodology for graduate students in Journalism and Public Relations.
2006 - 2012 | I did web design & development for clients such as the Kaiser Foundation and Kaiser Health News, Stanford d.School and North Base Media.
2002 - 2007 | Started my career here. The work included marketing and community web sites, and digital storytelling projects with the Erie Times-News newsroom. It’s where I fell in love with journalism.
Graduated 2003| I went to college here. I earned a BA in Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design and Literature.
Adjunct Professor, 2004 - 2007| This was also my first teaching gig. I was an adjunct instructor for a few years after I graduated, teaching courses in web design and Flash.
2012 - 2015 | Board member
2011 | I spent a week with my peers and some of my heros in journalism learning to be a better manager.
I give talks on digital design, the role of visual teams in journalism, product strategy, and project case studies. I’m open to speaking opportunities. Hit me up.
Previously, I’ve presented at the Brookings Institute, The Design Conference in Brisbane, Society of News Design annual conferences, ASNE, WAN-IFRA, and Industry Conference in the UK.