Hello! My name is Kat.

I like to understand the world through a critical design lens.

People do read. Selectively. I work collaboratively to craft experiences based on research and customer needs. My training and experience with writing, photography, digital architecture, strategy, and customer mapping can possibly help you. What I care about is helping people and organizations reach their goals of increasing quality, both in terms of product and process. Sustainability and accessibility are important to me, and aren't optional for product development.

Hobbies: Taking photos of porches, baking, hiking, drawing, running, painting, and listening to music.

Portfolio

Image of charts with survey data results for participants who answered the question - Do members of your community vote?

Surveys: Who Registers to Vote?

After studying best practices for survey design, our group asked a sample of people about their voting behaviors and preferences.

Success, Access, and Innovation bubbles with recommendations

Information Architecture: Maryland Higher Education Commission

Another project at The University of Baltimore required rethinking the information architecture for Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC).

Image of a group of researchers testing paper protypes of a mobile design.

Interaction Design: Hosts for Humanity

Our group got to work with local non-profit Hosts for Humanity to build a new booking process. Based on research, our group prototyped a mid-fidelity mobile site experience. and I was the lead on creating the asset in Axure.

Gloo map with results of data from the contextual inquiry.

User Research: Improving the Admissions Customer Experience

A university wanted deeper insights about improving the overall admissions experience for potential students. Using contextual inquiry methods, the group I worked with pinpointed pain points and suggested potential solutions.

Work Experience

(October 2022 - Present)

Guardian Life

Operate as a UX generalist across multiple projects on a shared service Agile group. Provide a wide range of UX services to business and technology teams to meet aggressive delivery deadlines. Day-to-day work includes writing, content design, product leadership, UX architecture, interaction design, UX research, and strategy.


(March 2022 - Present)

Connective Cube Content & Design

I provide freelance and contract support as a user experience practitioner. Also, I work as an independent researcher on reducing alcohol intake.

Notable clients include CVS Health (March 2022 - July 2022) and Vanguard (August 2022 - October 2022)


UX and Content Strategist (November 2020 - March 2022)

Fastspot

Provide strategy for design projets, including heuristic reviews, gathering content requirements, project plans, defining design constraints, and determining core audiences


eCommerce Specialist (March 2020 - November 2020)
QA Analyst (February 2019 - February 2020)

Money Map Press

Perform checks in staging and production environments for a multitude of projects, including development deployments and site configuration changes. Troubleshoot coding errors and clean up HTML/CSS on existing pages.

  • Significantly reduced ordering errors and increased responsive design output.
  • Contributed to eComm and promotional team efforts with designing with HTML/CSS, system maintenance, data analysis, cross-browser/device testing, and project management.

    • Database Administrator/Analyst (October 2017 - January 2019)

    The Park School - Baltimore

    Provided data administration in Raiser's Edge for the development and fundraising department. I mastered comparing large data sets in Excel with VLookup, served as the project lead for the annual report data listings, and provided data for monthly board reporting

    Contract Web Content Specialist (August 2018 - September 2018)

    Johns Hopkins Medicine

    I completed a temporary contract within Drupal and Confluence to setup new navigation structures for an association website release.

    Implementation Specialist (March 2015 - June 2017)

    StarChapter

    Provided a bi-weekly online training about managing responsive web content and generating emails in StarChapter. Updated HTML, CSS, and PHP code as needed to meet the customer's design requirements. Provided technical support, product assistance and training to the customer base of board members of local associations.

  • Gathered requirements and setup 100+ business systems with websites and relational databases for new customers.


    • Recruiter - Creative and Technology (May 2012 - March 2015)

    Creative Circle

    I interviewed more than 300 job applicants for positions in design, copywriting, marketing, project management, art direction, UX design, and account management.

    Education

    University of Baltimore

    M.S. Student in Interaction Design and Information Architecture (IDIA)
    Current Coursework: Project Management for UX

    My goal in pursuing a Master's degree in IDIA at The University of Baltimore is to research accessbility for voice and gestural based devices. Part of this research is becoming technically proficient in programming interfaces.

    January 2020 - Present

    University of Baltimore

    UX Certificate
    Coursework in Design Psychology, Interaction Design, User Research Methods, and Information Architecture

    GPA: 4.00

    August 2018 - May 2019

    The Graduate Center at CUNY

    M.A. in Liberal Studies with a focus on Gender and Sexuality Studies
    PhD Level Coursework in educational + developmental psychology, sociology, and political philosophy. I pursued this program with a goal of applying for PhD programs; however, I decided to go into the private sector.
    May 2008 - January 2011

    New York University

    B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication, minors in English Literature and Sociology
    September 2001 - May 2004

    Training

    Professional in Human Resources Certification (PHR)

    HRCI
    May 2014 - Present

    Skills

    Languages & Tools
    • HTML/CSS
    • Research Methodologies
    • JavaScript (Beginner)
    • Photoshop/InDesign
    • Wireframing Tools (Miro, Figma, LucidChart)
    • Responsive Design
    • Excel/Google Analytics
    • Content Management Systems (Various)
    Graduate Level Coursework
    • Interaction Design
    • Information Architecture
    • Intro to JavaScript
    • User Research Methods
    • Humans, Computers, and Cognition
    • Educational Psychology
    • Developmental Psychology
    • Rethinking Neoliberalism