Collaborative, curious, and creative applied researcher with over 10 years of experience across multiple cultures and industries. Advocate of collaborating with stakeholders to engage in best practices and promote research inclusivity. Skilled in qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Motivated to smartly and appropriately empower research such that everyone asks good questions, I invoke curiosity and grit to craft and implement effective research approaches that enable team members to uncover insights and collectively build better products. Advocation and empathy for humans is sewn into every research project I design. 

My professional primary persona, inspired by Kacie Wise’s presentation “The Missing Persona: Tapping into our self” at UXRC 2020.

Selected Professional Experience

Clio [2021]

Senior Design RESEARCHER

• Establish framework and materials for Research Operations to streamline and standardize research efforts across five product portfolios with 25+ product designers who conduct UX and design research

• Partner with Product Design leadership and Product Managers to identify strategic research needs and inform long-term product vision and roadmaps

• Serve as a research consultant and liasion to product designers and product managers who conduct user research with the goal of teaching good research habits and skills through guidance and hands-on practice

• Work with product designers, developers, and managers to evaluate the usability of proposed designs and workflows for high-level company initatives

Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) [2018 - 2020]

USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCHER

• Planned and implemented end-to-end research across the OCLC family of products while partnering with designers, product managers, and developers to identify and execute research initiatives

• Designed and led generative design and user research underpining the creation of a shared entity management infrastructure, which ultimately improves the discoverability of scholarly materials on the web, funded by a $2.5 million Mellon Foundation grant

• Refined and updated existing user personas to help teams understand who OCLC’s users are across multiple products, how to capture their attention, and where to send them to succeed.

• Regularly conducted usability tests and other evaluative research methods to pinpoint needed product improvements and work with UX designers and product managers to evaluate the severity of issues and their impact on the overall product experience

• Led participatory and design workshops with users and stakeholders

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company [2017]

DATA SCIENTIST

• Worked with Customer Insights and Analytics Optimization team members to identify knowledge gaps and maintain continuous improvement toward best research practices to improve user experiences

• Synthesized proprietary and openly-available socio-economic data to develop customer-centric insights and recommendations for stakeholders and team directors and inform business and product decisions

• Partnered with team leads to organize ideation sessions and workshops during early project phases to ensure bes tdata and research practices

• Identified user groups to understand and improve experience of clients who frequently engaged with Nationwide via call centers

The Ohio State University, Department of Political Science [2011 - 2017]

PH.D. CANDIDATE, RESEARCHER & INSTRUCTOR

• Published dissertation examining the effects of right-wing extremism and hate crimes on political engagement among immigrant communities in post-reunification Germany.

  “Fear and Loathing in the Vaterland: hate crimes and immigrant political engagement in modern day Germany”

• Guest researcher at German Institute for Economic Research [2015]

• Identified research needs, prioritized resources, developed research plans, and successfully executed research projects examining the psychological and political effects of discrimination and hate crimes on immigrant and minority populations in ambiguous and fast-changing environments

• Raised $25,000 to conduct 10 months of hands-on research in Germany while contributing as a guest researcher at the German Institute for Economic Research and the Social Science Research Center’s Migration, Integration, Transnationalization Research Unit in Berlin.

• Coordinated research logistics for three international projects examining behavior and decision-making of marginalized populations (1st and 2nd generation immigrants) and extremist groups (radical right-wing and neo-Nazi groups)

• Participated in generative design research efforts, such as one-on-one interviews, ethnographic research, and surveys, to identify and define problems and barriers to minority engagement and satisfaction

• Organized and implemented collection of >10,000 parliamentary inquiries from 16 regional archives to produce unique data set on crimes against immigrants and minorities in Germany between 2006 and 2016

• Designed and instructed nine university-level comparative politics and political behavior courses, using different techniques and presentations (online & in-class) to ensure the highest instructional impact

• Coordinated and facilitated three research development workshops: Political Psychology Dissertation Research Workshop and two summer-long Comparative Politics writing and development workshops to ensure timely completion of research projects

Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research [2010-2011]

FULBRIGHT RESEARCH SCHOLAR

• Developed research strategy and gathered social, demographic, and electoral data in Eastern Germany since 1990 to evaluate the effect of democratic transition on social behaviors and attitudes

• Worked with members of the Economic and Social Demographic and Historical Demography Labs to improve research and applicability of findings

• Collaborated as a citizen ambassador with University of Rostock’s study abroad program to guide German students through the American university application process
  

University of Louisville, Department of Political Science [2008-2010]

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

• Provided assistance with data collection, implementation of research strategies, effective use of experimental, case study, and media data to four senior faculty members

• Ensured successful and timely completion of faculty members’ research projects, resulting in three book manuscripts, several journal articles, and conference presentations

Education & Professional Development

Research Design Skills & Methodological Training