Owner of Studio Simpatico: NYC creative design, UX, and WordPress studio

18+ years' experience leading design, product, and development in a variety of industries. I've spent the last ten of those growing a one-woman design and development business into a boutique design and development studio. Studio Simpatico is a creative agency based in New York City that creates visual identities for companies and organizations, designs end-to-end products, and designs and builds custom themes on WordPress. Through Simpatico, I have been immersed in countless industries and verticals, from the nonprofit sector to fintech to ed tech to ad tech to mar tech to you name it tech. We've designed and built editorial platforms, brands and website for leading nonprofits, flexible content marketing hubs for brands and B2B companies, a self-service advertising buying platform for small businesses, a cash management platform for investors, an online community for writers to track their goals, a searchable vendor and talent directory for one of the world's largest consumer brands, a new web presence for one of New York's most beloved botanic gardens ... the list goes on. Prior to starting Simpatico, I led a design and research team at Google in Ads, working on what was previously DoubleClick for Publishers. After three years in Ads, I spent a year in a more 'startup' like environment as the design lead for Google Classroom, seeing the product from early requirements to its launch in classrooms in 2014. Before that, I led UX at the New York Observer. In my life before that, between years completing my Master's at NYU (ITP) I interned at Apple in Cupertino (on the Apple.com team). It was a fun summer: the iPhone was released that June. My people leadership style is a blend of empathetic and authentic, and my project leadership style is a blend of big picture "aim for the moon" and analytically practical. A natural entrepreneur, I love that my skill set and chosen career path (which sits at the intersection of product, UX, and digital strategy) allows me to observe people, their problems and frustrations, and use my creativity (along with decades of internet fluency) to invent ways to solve them. I also love working with immensely talented creatives, finding ways to lead and excite small teams, and helping motivated individuals thrive and reach their full potential.