Redesigning an aid map around advocacy
Research showed the map was solving the wrong problem. We rebuilt it around members' stories and the advocacy aimed at Congress and federal agencies.
Selected work
7 studies-
InterAction · NGO Aid Map
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The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Helping a civil rights coalition see its members clearly
83 member survey responses and two focus groups became four personas, which I then used to facilitate an ideation workshop with the coalition team.
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Gates Foundation · Gender Integration Marker
Putting a gender equity tool inside the system staff already use
Focus groups with three user groups shaped a 17-screen flow that moved the foundation's Gender Integration Marker from a PDF into its investment software. It is now used on every project the foundation funds.
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Open source · AI for Accessibility
From what disabled people say to work developers can build
A session kit and Claude skill for paid, accessible community sessions. AI drafts the findings; participants check them before anything goes public.
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Women in Global Health · womeningh.org
Putting the women it serves at the heart of a movement's website
Interviews in six countries, focus groups with 20 chapter leads and members, and 98 survey responses, turned into a designed report with clear recommendations for womeningh.org.
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PERIL · Information architecture
Mapping a research lab's web ecosystem before redesigning it
As Principal Architect, I modeled how PERIL's programs, tools and resources fit together, then ran a FigJam workshop to validate it as the base for taxonomy and search.
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MICA · Workshop
Teaching inclusive design as a question of justice
A session that moves designers from WCAG checklists to questions of power, ending in a facilitated activity where groups map an injustice and find where design can act.
Workshop coverimages/workshop-activity.png
About
I started in visual studies, with coursework in anthropology and psychology, and I still work at that intersection: watching how people actually behave, then making it visible to the people who design their services.
At Catholic Relief Services I led research for digital tools in humanitarian and development programs. That included the ReMiND prenatal care app in Uttar Pradesh, India, where I worked with low-vision and low-literacy residents and community health workers. I also designed visual storytelling for many CRS program stories, turning field research into clear, compelling narratives. Those field practices, such as layered consent and private ways to respond, still shape every study I run.
Today I run Alma Major, a behavioral insight studio, and teach graduate UX research and design leadership at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
- Practice
- Founder, Alma Major (2020–present)
- Teaching
- Graduate faculty, Maryland Institute College of Art
- Before
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Catholic Relief Services (USAID-funded programs)
- Past clients
- Gates Foundation, HP, InterAction, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, PERIL, Women in Global Health, Johns Hopkins
- Methods
- Interviews, focus groups, surveys, field studies, co-design workshops, prototyping, usability testing, synthesis, personas, service flows
- Ways of working
- Agile and Scrum; Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
- Education
- BA, Visual Studies, Temple University