I learned to build software before I learned to design it. That order matters.

I started in computer science, which means I spent years learning how software actually gets made before I ever opened a design tool. The MFA in Art and Technology came after, and the doctorate in computer science is in progress, expected 2028. The order in that sentence is the whole point.

It means I think in tokens, specs, and edge cases. I know what I am asking an engineer for when I ask for it, and I know which parts of a design will quietly become someone else's problem in the build. My systems get adopted instead of shelved, and my work ships close to how it was drawn.

For five years I have taken complicated things and made them usable. Products built from nothing. Fragmented tools made coherent. I tend to own the whole arc, from the first research conversation to the analysis after launch. Consumer fintech, B2B SaaS, enterprise platforms, brand systems: different rooms, same job.

I build compulsively. Side projects, prototypes nobody asked for, small tools for problems that annoy me for about a week. Most go nowhere. A few change how I think about the next real thing.

The counterweight is driving. Twenty-two states so far, some of it solo, road trips any chance I get. Long drives are where I do my best thinking, and the best design I notice is usually out there rather than on a screen: a highway sign you read at seventy without slowing down, a diner menu that answers your question before you ask it. I come home from every trip with photos of signage nobody else would take.

I also mentor through ADPList and AIGA New York, speak at events like CQAA Chicago, and judge hackathons at MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Penn, UCLA, and UC Davis. Explaining a decision to someone earlier in their career is the fastest way to find out whether it was a good one.

Solo or directing

Sole designer on some products, directing junior designers on others: an agency model inside the org.

In the leadership room

Daily collaboration with VPs and SVPs: framing problems, defending decisions, reporting outcomes.

Teaching the room

Design-thinking workshops, enablement leadership, and the AR/VR lab at NYIT's The HIVE (2019–2021).