I've been in design long enough to know that the hardest part is rarely the design itself. It's the ambiguity before it, the stakeholder alignment around it, and the systems that have to hold it together after it ships.

I started my career at a nonprofit design agency in Ohio, where limited resources meant living inside that ambiguity daily. When a dream project with Nike became a reality, my husband and I packed up our car and drove west to Portland. That opportunity led to more work with Meta and Intel on strategy and UX research. Stakeholder alignment wasn't a nice to have there, it was the entire job. I had to earn trust fast, because nothing about my position was going to earn it for me.

In 2020 I joined AudioEye, an accessibility tech company, as their founding brand designer. The role meant building systems from nothing, establishing direction, hiring designers, and doing all of it with fewer resources than I'd like and faster than felt comfortable. Six years later, I'm still the one leading the design org.

The work I'm most proud of is the people I've managed and their growth. Ambiguity and pressure are constants. What I control is whether the people around me have the clarity and support to do their best work through it.