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Creative Consultant

Expertise: Creative Direction, Art Direction, DEIB Consulting, UX and Systems Design

I love telling stories that reflect the diverse player-base that has long existed in the gaming community. Players engage thoughtfully and passionately, and I leverage my graduate research in economic equity to design inclusive and accessible experiences. Having spent nearly a decade in the video games industry, I have developed a leadership style that prioritizes individual empowerment and sustainability.

I'd love to chat about creative development and inclusive design.

Clients

• Riot Games, Mar. ‘24-Dec. ‘24
  Sr. Principle Visual Designer, Art Director

• Deconstructor of Fun, Aug. ‘23-Dec. ‘23
  Art Director

• Singularity Six, Apr. ‘21-Jul. ‘21
  Art Director

The Institute for Economic and Racial Equity

IERE is a research institute situated within the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

Researcher and Expert Technical Advisor, Racial Justice x Tech Policy

Mar ’22–May ’23 | 10 hrs / week

• Data-Informed Researcher: Wrote literature reviews; analyzed a national dataset with STATA; Contextualized how data collection and privacy work to systematically discriminate against homeowners and borrowers of color; Won “Best Articulation of Algorithmic Bias”

Communications Associate

Mar ’22–May ’23 | 10 hrs / week

• UX Design/Research: Redesigned website architecture through interviews and developed a design strategy; Created wireframes and an interactive prototype with Figma; Implemented the design through the CMS

Research Intern

May ’22–Aug ’22 | 10 hrs / week

• Research Summary: Researched how Black farmers were impacted by racist USDA loan practices and the resulting class-action lawsuit and settlement in the case of Pigford v. Glickman

• Qualitative Research: Supported developing the interview protocol; Traveled to Alabama to interview Black farmers across the Mississippi Delta

• Publishing Strategy: Initiated a publishing strategy that would allow the Black farmers to tell their story in their own words; Researched local newspapers that would reach other people in the Black farming community

Riot Games

Head of Art, Global Marketing

Jan ’19–Aug ’20 | Full-Time

• Team Size: Led a 13-person multi-disciplinary creative department, including 5 director-level reports

• Developing Talent: Hired and mentored a diverse creative department; Promoted and collaborated with new leaders to scale the organization; Sought internal opportunities to grow and train talented designers looking for new challenges; Established career goals and learning opportunities with all team members; Provided honest and compassionate performance feedback

• Leading Through Turbulence: Supported an anxious team through the transition to remote work during the start of COVID-19; Managed multiple re-org efforts

• Change Management: Established new design standards and processes during the consolidation of the marketing department; Built trust across new and unfamiliar teams to maintain the monthly cadence of content and multiple multi-million dollar campaigns; Communicated rebranding efforts transparently and frequently developing trust in the new direction throughout the global organization; Scaled the creative department to support a growing global multi-game studio

Art Director, Meta Game Systems

Jan ’17–Jan ’19 | Full-Time

• Team Size: Led a 5-person multi-disciplinary design team matrixed across multiple products

• Systems Thinker: Led the design team during a redesign of the competitive ranked system; Designed an honor system to create positive player behavior; Introduced team voice communication features; Increased visibility of player accomplishments and collections to build meaning into the rewards and gameplay loop

• Quality and Process Accountability: Identified and addressed areas of underperformance through performance plans and advocating for greater funding and support for a small under-resourced team; Facilitated design community of practice meetings; Encouraged designers to present case studies of their work; Defined quality standards alongside designers, artists, engineers, and product owners

• Innovation Advocate: Introduced a new tech art role within the game systems team to decrease the time and number of people required to design and implement user interface; Aligned 5+ product teams and 3 disciplines around the new job description and reporting structure; Collaboratively established a timeline to rollout the workflow and tool changes across several product launches and existing toolsets; Presented the strategy to executive stakeholders

Art Director, Publishing

Jun ’15–Jan ’17 | Full-Time

• Team Size: Led a 5-person multi-disciplinary creative marketing team

• Developing Talent: Developed a studio-wide system of core competencies that adapted to more than 10 disciplines and hundreds of artists across multiple games and products

• Cultural Impact: Led exploration of new creative executions and the use of new technologies resulting in content that engaged current players, attracted new ones, and created an ecosystem of content regardless if people played the game or not

Visual Designer

Jan ’13–Jun ’15 | Full-Time

Associate Visual Designer

Jun ’11–Jan ’13 | Full-Time

ICDC College

Visual Designer

Jul ’10–Jun ’11

Fastenal

Video Editor

Aug ’08–May ’10