My passion is to thoughtfully bring products to life that will support society, & consider carefully who gets helped & hurt by it.

My passion has turned into a career of serving groups and domains traditionally underserved by technology, for a total of 12 years. 

My dissertation work is on helping designers find materials online, and traditional methods, taxonomies, have failed them. I have also worked in various underserved domains like:

  • Martial Arts
  • 3D modeling
  • STEM education
  • Costume & fashion design
  • Various non-profit organizations
  • Vaccine clinics, among others

I also apply my UX research and design skills with design as an award-winning, master-rank costume and prop maker.

I started in working in theater, and with those skills, I am a more creative, thoughtful and deadline-driven UX researcher. Among others I:

  • lead costume builder for community theater
  • costume shop manager for university
  • a multi-media costume designer, specializing in crafts, interactive electronics and drafting
  • a maker leader and representative for Sonoma State
  • Volunteer my expertise in open office hours to support craft novices

I also have a costume design portfolio available on request!

Embedded, hand-woven LEDs inside the hem trim of a 6-tiered skirt.

I have published at:

  • IEEE’s Symposium of 3D User Interfaces
  • IEEE’s Virtual Reality Conference
  • Tangible and Emboided Interaction Conference
  • Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) conference workshops
  • Graphics Interface, among others.

Awards I’ve won include:

  • $100K+ in grants
  • 1st place, Best Recreation, Masters Finalist, best Prop/Cosplay in costuming craftsmanship competitions
  • Ronald E. McNair Post- Baccalaureate Scholar
  • Google Hispanic Scholarship
  • GEM Fellowship
  • National Science Foundation’s Graduate Fellowship

Diversity and Inclusion

I am also passionate about bringing women and underrepresented minorities into computing and STEAM fields. I served as co-chair for my club, the Association for Women in Computing at Virginia Tech, to bring as many women to the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing. As a professor, I was awarded $10k to bring students to their first Grace Hopper Celebration conference.

I’m also a maker leader, which means I have mastered /trained others on:

  • design,
  • prototyping,
  • contextual inquiry,
  • handsewing,
  • laser cutting,
  • and everything in between!
Couture costume with interactive props, part of a finalist submission to an int’l costuming competition.

My students are among:

  • Fortune 500 companies
  • PhD programs
  • startup founders
  • multiple game studios of varying sizes