Recent Experience

May 2021 – Present

Lead Content Strategist – Northwestern Mutual

  • Leading content strategy for the Luna Design System guide site to ensure Luna’s “single source of truth” documentation meets the needs of Luna’s users
  • Guiding Content Strategy team’s collaborative efforts to establish a team charter and create a strategy for raising the content maturity both in the customer experience design organization and at Northwestern Mutual at the enterprise level
  • Setting standards for and delivering Writing for Usability training across product teams
  • Spurring the creation of a focused, effective UX storytelling culture
 
MAY 2019 – March 2021

Lead Content Strategist/Designer – Fannie Mae

  • Wrote product copy for 6 launched apps and served as lead content designer for one product team
  • Set standards, drove adherence to UX writing best practices by creating design system writing guide
  • Designed and delivered writing best practice training rated 4.5/5 for usefulness with a 92 NPS
  • Created 1st voice & tone guide in company’s 80+ year history
  • Sparked creation of Enterprise inclusive writing guide and trained division officers in its use
  • Led 1st organization-wide content community of practice growing attendance by 225% in 2 years
JANUARY 2018 – MAY 2019

Sr. Content Strategist (contract) – Fannie Mae

  • Led content strategy and IA redesign for Multifamily section of FannieMae.com resulting in 10% lower calls to support staff and increased reading ease from grade 23 to grade 8 on average
JULY 2016 – JANUARY 2018

Digital Creative Communications Consultant – Aquilent / Booz Allen

  • Developed and tested consumer-focused IA for store.SAMSHA.gov rated 25% more discoverable
  • Created IA and led content migration of 300+ document NIAID AIDS clinical studies site into Drupal
  • Led content team in Agile CMS migration of Fitness.gov from planning through 1st release
APRIL 2012 – APRIL 2016

UX Designer/Front-end Developer – Rad Campaign

  • Created custom taxonomies, content types, content strategies, and information architectures resulting in:
    • 1st page Google search rankings for consumer health client
    • Increased findability and navigability for disability services client
    • Enabling a political lobbying client to defeat a gubernatorial candidate in Virginia who opposed women’s access to reproductive health services

Earlier experience

MARCH 2011 – APRIL 2012

Public Affairs Specialist (GS14) – HHS

  • Reduced helpdesk tickets to division’s contracted vendor by 15% and cut staff response time to internal partner requests in half by creating and delivering custom HTML & CSS training to digital communications division staff
OCTOBER 2006 – MARCH 2011

Dir. Online Communications – Clean Water Action

  • Increased online donations by 20% by designing and implementing lapsed donor email program
OCTOBER 2004 – OCTOBER 2006

Dir. Communications & Admin – Center of Concern

  • Increased member retention by 50% by designing and deploying new donor email program
APRIL 2004 – OCTOBER 2004

Online Content Manager – Assn. of Trial Lawyers of America

  • Decreased spam reports of email newsletter by 35% by applying content best practices
APRIL 2000 – NOVEMBER 2003

Web Manager – Greenpeace USA

  • Saved the organization 98% per month on technology costs by custom designing a content management system and by managing a 16 month redesign and migration of multiple websites to on-time, on-budget completion

 

Approach

  • Curiosity and philosophy of beginner’s mind
  • Bringing a design mindset to writing
  • Speaking candidly without venom
  • Tactical execution mindful of the big picture

Education

Certified Design Thinking Facilitator – LUMA Institute

Certification in designing, planning, and leading design thinking workshops for large and small groups.

luma facilitator badge

 
UX Design Certificate – CareerFoundry

Six month, 400 hour program specializing in UX process and methods.

Plain Language Writing Certificate – PlainLanguage.gov

Federal employee training intensive in plain language writing techniques.

M.A. Film & Video Production – American University

Concentration in screenwriting. Winner Best Screenplay AU Student Film Festival.

B.A. Interdisciplinary: English, Politics, Psychology – Catholic University

Semiotics, critical discourse analysis of visual media, psychology of art. Awarded Magna Cum Laude.

Community Engagement

DC Content Strategy Meetup – Member

UXPA DC – Member/Volunteer

Hexagon DC – Member